Seniors put art on the walls

The Helen Lindhurst Fine Arts Gallery sits tucked past the left of the entrance to Watt Hall, an area that seems always to be teeming with eccentric professors and tired architecture students alike. It might seem like a quiet space amid the hustle and bustle of the crowd, but thanks to a group of students from the Roski School of Fine Arts, it’s turning into a center for collaborative and experimental art.

Around 6 p.m., an hour before closing time, the area around the gallery is surprisingly quiet. Aside from a drawing class to the gallery’s right that hosts a nude model, not much appears to be going on. But inside the gallery, one finds the ultimate canvas for experimentation.

Eighteen seniors from Roski  have joined together to produce “Tooth of the Lion,” a text-heavy mural that goes beyond the traditional borders of the walls, spilling out onto the floor and the ceiling and using essentially the entire gallery as space for content.

Words cascade across the walls in severe dashes of neo-surrealist/dada spurts. For instance: “Hot s***/Cold diarrhea,” which explains the faux poo that piles on the hardwood floor, running down from the bottoms of letters.

As a piece of art, it enters the viewer’s consciousness in an experiential manner — through all parts of the body as much as through the eyes and ears. Entering the room, you get a sense of the work’s smell, touch, even the taste of the cold gallery air.

“Tooth of the Lion” emerged from an in-class discussion about the available outlets for student art.  In comparing exhibits within the university to those outside in the city of Los Angeles and beyond, it was decided that student artists needed a more-experimental venue for their work on campus.

The wall of the gallery is emblazoned with all the proposed titles the students invented for the fall senior exhibition.

“Pointing at an attempt to find common ground between disparate art practices, the artists pull from this set of potential titles, presenting the text visually in various forms on the walls of the gallery,” said the exhibit’s description.

Streamers and sticky letters adorn the walls, spelling out words that drift into languidity, presenting a mysterious undertone that suggests something unseen or nonsensical.

It reeks of young expression. The presentation exudes the great frustrated, exploding rage and beauty of being caught in the warped world of old adolescence and young adulthood.

It’s as if the 18 artists got up and went “blah” all over the walls — but in a good way — offering something soulful and true. The experience of taking in the exhibit is a refreshing one.

“Tooth of the Lion” started on Nov. 6 and will last until Nov. 16.

The exhibition exists alongside another project, “Bald Dandelions,” which shows individual works from the artists’ senior year. Works of photography, painting, drawing, ceramics, sculpture, video and printmaking will be on display until Nov. 14 at H Kazan Fine Arts on West Washington Boulevard off campus.

This art presentation has spawned a whole set of questions within Roski regarding the portrayal of student work. A Facebook group called “Off and On” serves as a message board for those who have concerns or propositions for future topics of student art exhibitions.

It is a virtual space created by the current senior class to discuss issues relating to the opportunities and response to student work on and off campus.

“The goal of this dialogue is to reclaim our campus exhibition spaces, specifically Helen Lindhurst Gallery, and to restructure the identity of the student show,” according to the group’s Facebook page. “Our hope is that rather than focusing solely on negative criticism or the current on-campus exhibition climate, members of the Roski community will make critical, yet constructive contributions to this important conversation.”

The online conversation will last until Nov. 30 and those who are not part of the Facebook community are encouraged to join in by emailing [email protected] or reaching out to members of “Off and On.”

The breadth of creativity showcased in the two exhibitions shows a sense of exploration on the students’ part, indicators that the movement might be opening the doors to new opportunities in the way students are able to showcase their finished work.