Living with the ordinary at SoFA

"Coming to Terms with the Everyday" is running in the School of Fine Arts Gallery, which opened with a reception on Oct. 24 and will run until Nov. 21.\n"This art is everyday with a twist," said Dana Sperry, the show's curator. "The gallery at the School of Fine Art's main role is to show and play contemporary art from IU, the state and the country. This is the artist's response to everyday, mundane events." \nSperry is the associate director of the gallery and has been on staff for two years. He began putting the show together about a year and a half ago.\n"I came to them with the idea and said, this is what I'm excited about -- now show me what you're excited about," he said.\nThe artists highlighted in the gallery are Oli Watt, Maire Kennedy, Andrew Winship, Jennifer Vanderpool, Heidi Van Wieren, Cat Chow, Michael Hernandez de Luna, Georgina Valverde, Gabriel Fowler and Ken Fandell. Most are from Chicago.\nSperry asked each artist to creatively represent their reactions to the world around them. \n"The topic for this show is fairly loose on purpose to let the artists do what they do," Sperry said. "It's just loose enough to let them go forward. Some pieces are brand new and are specifically for this show."\nThe exhibit features Ken Fandell's "Thoughts I Had on a Hike in First and Second Person." His work is about being an ordinary person and having a relationship with something greater, Fandell said. After finding out about the show through his gallery, Fandell said he is a fan of some of the artists in the show and decided to supply his work. His contributions include photographs taken of everyday places with random thoughts attached on Post-Its. Another piece is the phrase "I Love You" written in the sand toward the ocean.\n"It's an easy thing you can do, but how much of a difference does it make to something like the ocean?" Fandell said.\nEarly in his career, Fandell decided he couldn't go out of his way to make art. He said he wanted to use everyday items that were convenient.\n"I had a 9-to-5 job and I made a lot of art at work," Fandell said.\nChow presents three pieces, "Not for Sale," "Down Coat" and "March." "Not for Sale" is a dress made of 1,000 donated dollar bills. Chow has a background in chain mail rings, like those used to make armor. She used the same philosophy in her current work, except with money. She said she was intrigued by George Washington's face during her work and tried to incorporate that into the piece. \n"If you look down the seams on the sides and the middle you can see George Washington's face staring through the holes," Chow said.\nChow did another piece of clothing from newspaper and said she looks forward to working with other paper materials.\n"I am looking to meld art and fashion," she said. "I also wanted to address the commercialism in art and in fashion design. I mean, is it more valuable, literally $1,000, or is it less valuable?"\nShe also acknowledges the people who donated the money are just as important as the piece itself. She has actually worn the piece in public.\n"I have been wearing the dress to show the people who donated and the public what the dress actually looks like," Chow said.\nAnother of Chow's pieces, "Down Coat," comes from a blue-themed show curated by Kennedy. \n"If you were (sad), I could see you wearing that jacket," Chow said.\nHer last piece, "March" is a skirt made of one large zipper.\n"I've done a few of these skirts, and the color of the skirt correlates to the color I associate with the month," Chow said. "This skirt is called March and is conducted of many greens."\nOther pieces in the exhibit include two cartoon films by Gabe Fowler, a landscape constructed of Jell-O by Vanderpool, a fake stamp collection by Hernandez de Luna, a silkscreen by Winship and Oli Watt, two pieces constructed of Elmer's glue and ink titled "Shades of Blue 1 & 2" by Van Wieren, a collection of silk screens titled "The Legacy Suite" by Watt, an afghan made of yarn and one made of plastic bags by Valverde and three pieces made with band-aids, sandpaper and color tiles by Kennedy.\nSperry said he believes shows like this will be the catalyst for a real movement in the art culture of not only Bloomington, but Indiana as a whole.\n"It's not like Chicago, but it's happening here just in smaller ways," he said. "I think the interest is there, but the dialogue between artists is smaller because the number of artists is smaller than a place like New York or Chicago."\nSperry said he was encouraged by the exhibit.\n"What I hope happens is that it helps people re-evaluate their life and negotiate the everyday," Sperry said. "On some level, people can relate to this stuff because it's close to them."\nThe SoFA Gallery is open from noon to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. For more information, visit www.fa.indiana.edu/~sofa/main.html. \n-- Contact staff writer Jessica Irvin at jlirvin@indiana.edu.