无忧视频

Conceptual Art Installation Turning Heads

On the ground floor in the northwest corridor of 无忧视频鈥檚 Parsons Building, you鈥檒l find an interesting, if not puzzling, piece of art titled Wall Drawing 305.

The 9-by-28-foot area, filled with intersecting pencil-drawn lines, shapes, focal points and cryptic notes, is an example of 鈥渋nstruction-based art,鈥� a technique employed by conceptual artists that instructs participants to interpret and execute works based on sets of commands. With Associate Professor of Art Ken Fandell, Harvey Mudd students undertook installation of a piece created by conceptual and minimalist artist Sol LeWitt. The work consists of 鈥渙ne hundred random specific points,鈥� the locations of which 鈥渁re determined by the drafters.鈥� Students use both rational thought and intuition to produce the artwork.

鈥淚’ve always enjoyed process art,鈥� says Alejandro Frias 鈥�14, a computer science alumnus who spent many hours on the piece. 鈥淭he final product isn’t why I do art; it’s for what I get out of the process. This piece is all process鈥攅ven the thought process of the artists鈥攁nd has the added draw of being very puzzle/game like. I think Mudders will enjoy the puzzle of retracing the processes involved to create this rendition.鈥�

LeWitt鈥檚 works are usually sold to museums and private collectors and installed with the help of representatives of the artist鈥檚 estate, but the LeWitt Foundation agreed to loan this work to the College for the students to install.

鈥淚 reached out to a curator who did a project like this with an art history class at the Middlebury College Museum of Art,鈥� says Fandell, the Michael G. and C. Jane Wilson Chair in Arts and the Humanities. 鈥淪he put me in touch with Sofia LeWitt and, through conversation, we wound up being able to install this piece.鈥�

Kirklann Lau 鈥�16, another student involved in the project, says he was drawn to its collaborative and complex nature. 鈥淚t was painstaking to draft the arrangement of lines. It required plenty of leveling, compasses, string, cleverness and teamwork,鈥� says Lau. 鈥淚’ve enjoyed working with my fellow draftsmen in both coming up with points and helping draft them.鈥�

鈥淪tanding at the end of the perpendicular hallway and watching the lines come into focus from afar as you approach it is my favorite way of experiencing the wall drawing,鈥� says Lau. 鈥淚t does not outright beckon its viewers; it merely hints at a greater complexity when you’re up close.鈥�