Students from UBC Okanagan will have their collaborative work on display at the Kelowna Art gallery starting February 10th.
The project, Viral Objects is an interdisciplinary collaboration between first, second and third year students in Visual Arts, Creative Writing, Performance and Media Studies courses. The objects, or source of the virus, were created by students in two of professor Egami’s sculpture classes and were then explored, interpreted, translated and used as inspiration for students in performance, creative writing and media studies.
The objects “go viral”, propagating performance art, storytelling, poetry, sound art, drawings, installations and video.
For the students in creative writing, they were given one of the objects, and had to create an Instagram post that included a photo of at least one of the objects and written text, the content of which was influenced by the object. Students in the performance class explored the objects and texts in studio to create embodied interactions- some of which were photographed and videotaped. Students in Media Studies created audio and video works.
“This project has been a thrill from the get-go, because we’re seeing how students across disciplines inspire each other.” Says Creative Writing professor Smith, “There’s an element of intrigue too, with how they approach each other’s work, and re-imagine it. You can’t anticipate their changes. They’re wild and fresh and original. It’s the best feeling to see that making and re-making of ideas.”
Performance professor Kenney defines the process as one of translation. “It is through the difficult act of translation from one modality to another that a deeper understanding of “others” and of the world around us begins to take shape.”
The work and the process by which it was made will be on exhibition at the Kelowna Art Gallery in The Front Project Space from February 10 to April 8, 2018, with a reception on March 23rd.
For more information about the exhibition visit kelownaartgallery.com/viral-objects
