Old schoolhouse new home for sculpture students

Oct. 12, IU's sculpture department celebrated the grand opening of The Fuller Projects, an alternative installation space in the McCalla Sculpture Center on the corner of 10th Street and Indiana Avenue. \nThe building that houses the center used to be the McCalla Elementary School, and the exhibition space is named after Herschell Fuller, the principal of McCalla Elementary School from 1951 to the school's closing in 1973.\nWhen the school closed, the University acquired the building. The old classrooms have been transformed into creative spaces with tall windows and high ceilings, maximizing the daylight and creating the ultimate studio space. The University allowed the building, which houses studios for students, to fall into disrepair. The students with studios in the building have taken the matter into their own hands. \n"This is where our studios are -- it's our second home," graduate student Richard Saxton said. "It reflects the idea that if your landlord lets your house go, you are either going to move or fix it up yourself."\nThe students decided to stay, and the Fuller Projects is the result of their goals to create an alternative viewing space and preserve the history and structure of the building. \n"Part of the reason we created the space comes out of frustration, of not having a space like this in Bloomington, a place to do really contemporary sculpture," Saxton said. "And the other reason we did this addresses the building as something that has fallen by the wayside as far as the University goes." \nThe Fuller Projects, a 750-square foot exhibition space in a renovated classroom, was founded to highlight work from emerging artists who move away from the mainstream. The exhibition space is intended to attract artists working with new ideas in experimental contemporary art. Work from IU students is emphasized, although proposals are accepted from artists not affiliated with the University. \n"What we would like to see happen is the gallery attracting nontraditional installation type work," Saxton said. "What we wanted to do was have this gallery be a place where one can do things that can't be done anywhere else in Bloomington."\nGraduate student Stuart Hyatt's "New Houses Have No Ghosts," is now on exhibit. \nHyatt's exhibition consists of 11 photographs of suburban housing developments. Instead of including real people in his photographs, Hyatt created cartoon-like characters. His figures represent humanity, but Hyatt erases all detail and expression from the faces to reflect what he considers the superficiality of the suburbs.\n"I've taken realistic people and removed all of the detail to cartoonize the figure, and I have also removed any expression to simulate the vacuous nature of the suburbs," Hyatt said. "At the same time I am trying to get across a sense of foreboding, that something has gone awry in the neighborhood. Suburbs are an emotional frontier in that the kids who are born there create a specific life for themselves, dealing with childhood imagination."\nOutside the gallery windows, Hyatt has installed a swingset, occupied by four of his cartoon children. Each swinging child is lit with a spotlight so the viewer can see them through the windows. The children create a ghost-like quality, representing the children who used to attend McCalla and playing off the title of Hyatt's exhibition. The location of Hyatt's swingset is also the location of the original McCalla playground. \n"I wanted people to know that the photographs weren't digitally manipulated, so I included the figures outside," Hyatt said. "I was also making a historical nod to the idea of the playground."\nThe Fuller Projects is expected to be an outlet for contemporary artists who are looking for a space to exhibit their installations. After Hyatt's show is an exhibit by graduate student Wendy Taylor. Richard Saxton's "Free History 2" will then be on display through the beginning of November. The Fuller Projects are open to public viewing, and viewing appointments can also be made through the McCalla Sculpture Center.