The Kinetic Gallery is hosting a community art project directed by artist Steve Prince (pictured above) from Monday Jan. 28 to Sunday Feb. 3. Prince helps participants create social protest art (Udeshi Seniveratne / Photo editor).
Returning students, staff and community members converged in front of the walls of the Kinetic Gallery which were colored black for the unusual gallery opening on Tuesday Jan. 29.
Dark smudged footprints lead into the buzzing creative space like marks from muddy shoes to guide interested participants into the “Urban Garden” exhibit. The art event was a community project for anyone to participate in regardless of levels of artistic ability.
The serialized community engagement project was led by artist Steve Prince who is currently featured in the Bertha V.B. Lederer Gallery with his exhibit “Sankofa: Hope of Renewal” as of Wednesday Jan. 30.
Charcoal-smudged plastic tarps and gloves were strewn everywhere around the Kinetic Gallery. Prince greeted each participant with friendly conversation and instructions regarding the task at hand. People were asked to create images using erasers, white chalk and charcoal on the canvases masking the Kinetic Gallery walls.
On the left side of the gallery, people were instructed to depict chaotic and negative aspects of our world and on the right side of the gallery, depictions of positive, wholesome things.
The aim of the project was to portray light in the darkest times and darkness in the lightest times. The project’s use of stark black-and-white color scheme helps highlight the contrast in life using the iconography on the wall. Mixing black and white leads to gray to reflect the confusion of morality in the world.
A lot of the power of the art piece came from people imagining and then drawing their original denotations of good and bad on the walls. A prison complex and bottles falling from a dead plant are some examples of things drawn on the chaotic and negative side of the room.
Prince commented on the timeless practice of wall marking and how it has been used to document the times.
“[I hoped to share this with Geneseo because] expression and all its forms help document issues of world and people with the gift [of expression through drawing] have that ability,” Prince said.
Biology major junior Morgan Torre participated in the event. Torre drew two contrasting sections, one on the left wall and one on the right. Her piece on the left had soldiers saluting out of plants to represent Torre’s protest of the travel ban and disregard for soldiers’ service. On the right, Torre drew the face of a mother and child in a flower to represent innocence and love.
Visual expression as a major has been cut out of Geneseo’s program list which makes students like Torre interested in participating in art events around campus. Torre and other participants gathered together for communication without words in order to reflect and grow beyond their own thoughts and singular human experience.
English major freshman Amina Diakite also took part in the creative event.
“[I created a visual metaphor] for what was important to me,” Diakite said. “Especially what sticks out when I think about education and student life.”
Diakite’s piece highlighted a person’s need to rely on their own ambitions, community and passions in order to live. She did this by comparing these needs to the way humans need water for survival.
This project hopes to begin a dialogue for those willing to think about the systems at play in the world and their effect on other human beings. In making observations and challenging systems through art, individuals can continue to express their opinions about the world and relate with one another.