Fuller Projects bring variety with rotating exhibits

Melted prescription bottles and photos hanging at eye level are just two of the installation projects accepted for display at the McCalla Building, home to the Fuller Projects.

“We try to show a variety of art,” said Marla Roddy, co-director at the Fuller Projects. “We don’t exclude anything.”

The projects, established by students in 2002, are geared toward young emerging artists with more contemporary artwork.

Jasmine Begeske, who received her BFA in photography from IU, is the next exhibitionist on the schedule with the show “Surrogate,” which will be on display from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. Friday.

The idea for “Surrogate” started when Begeske was diagnosed with Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome, which left her infertile. As she wrote in her brochure for the exhibit, she no longer viewed the process of life as natural once she started fertility treatments, as the mystery and surprise of conception was wiped out of the equation.

“The intersection of sex and science is where I stand,” Begeske wrote in the brochure. “I want viewers that enter my installation to feel they are standing at that same crossroads, the juxtaposition of a sex and the medically intervened intercourse, chance and order, organic and controlled, private and public.”

To achieve this, Begeske melted a mass of orange prescription bottles so that each of them takes on a twisted and misshapen form unique from the others. The individual forms will be nailed to the wall, covering the gallery.

“I want people to feel overwhelmed,” Begeske said.

In addition to the melted bottles, a bed covered in more bottles will be installed in the middle of the room, and black and white photographs will be on display on another wall.

Begeske said each time she shows “Surrogate” in galleries around the country, each installation is different.

“I always consider the entire space of the gallery, so the exhibit looks different in each one,” Begeske said. “Presentation is definitely a part of the content — my work is not shown in pretty frames.”

The focus on presentation is a trend that Roddy has noticed as well — artists are much more thoughtful about the installation process.

“One of my professors always used to say that it’s 90 percent presentation,” Roddy said. “If you have a great piece of art sitting on a dirty floor, no one’s going to look at it. But at the same time, people are moving away from putting everything in frames, all in a perfect row.”

In a past exhibit called “People Mountain People Sea” by Yang Chen, photographs taken of people walking through crowded streets were hung from fishing lines attached to the ceiling, each photo dangling at eye level.

“You were surrounded by the photographs, and it really felt as though you were walking through a crowd,” Roddy said. “If the pictures had been on the wall, it wouldn’t have had the same effect.”

The Fuller Projects is completely student-run and Roddy said the gallery is a launching point for young artists because they must present their idea then promote their show.

“It’s good experience because that’s how it will be in the real world,” Roddy said.
However, the unconventional gallery allows its artists to take chances.

“Many people think that the Fuller Projects is a gallery for students, but we’re trying to get other people involved,” Roddy said. “We want to expose everyone to what’s out there in the art world.”