Berry students experience new kind of art

Art project engages community, stresses minimalism

Many college students are involved in the arts, but during November students at Berry were given a chance to look at art that is lesser known.

Thomas Mew, a professor of art at Berry College for the past 37 years, teaches a modern art class every Monday. Last week, he split his class up into two groups and each of the groups did a project on minimalism.

For the project the groups had to create a piece of minimalist art and present it to the Berry community by putting it in or outside the Krannert Student Center. They also had to write a report about minimalism and take pictures of people’s reactions to their own piece of minimalist art.

“Minimalism is basically what some people consider one of the more important art movements of the 20th century,” Mew said. “It is about trying to create something great with as little as possible, using very simple objects.”

Minimalism backgrounder
Beginning in the 1960s, minimalist artists desired to produce works that looked unique. The artists desired to allow the audience to view a composition more intensely and closely, due to the removal of the distractions of a central theme. Self-expression, symbolism and imagery were rejected and simplistic, abstract design became the focus.

Hannah Marshall was involved in the one of the projects—a tall, orange “frame” made out of paper pipes that straddled one of the main sidewalks outside of Krannert. The idea was taken from minimalist artist Sol LeWitt.

“The purpose of minimalism is to create art using the least amount of material," Marshall said. "It progressed from cold indoors to a movement called earthworks—using the environment to create artwork. Ours was in the middle. We used earthy colors and it even looks like it is coming out of the sidewalk. People create their own artwork when they walk through it. They were the art.”

"What's that?"
Rebekah Larisey, a student in Mew’s class, worked on one of the group projects. Her group decided to make a black hanging box that was hollow on the inside. They placed it in the hallway of the Krannert Center near the Berry Beanery.

“Some people were afraid to walk through [the frame],” said Larisey.

The response the Berry community gave to the projects differed, but for the most part people were interested in what was taking place.

“Minimalism is not really talked about,” Larisey said. “So some people were interested, but I could tell most people had never heard of it before.”

Marshall said other students had their own opinion. “I was talking with someone later in Krannert about it and another student, not knowing that I was involved in the projects, overheard us and said, ‘Oh yeah, that was really ugly.’”

Get them thinking
For Mew, a bad reaction is not what matters.

“I wanted to get other people on campus to be curious about ‘what in the world is this?’ and ‘why is it here?’ If they thought that, then it served its purpose,” Mew said.

Although the projects did make people on campus curious, the history behind minimalism gives it meaning that is hard to find and that might have helped many to form their own opinion.

“Minimalism is one of the first times where people are invited to be a part of the art,” said Larisey. “It is important to know where art had been up to that point to understand it.”

Marshall agreed: “It’s hard to understand the creativity and beauty of something if you don’t know the history and story behind it."

{A.F.}