As Diverse as They Come

Let's just dispel the belief that art students don't do any work.

Mason Gross School of the Arts is showcasing the thesis projects of soon-to-be bachelor of fine arts graduates. The exhibition, titled First World Problems, is proof that art school is no joke.
First World Problems is about as diverse as they come. Detailed painted portraits cover one wall of the Mason Gross galleries, while three feet away, exhibition-goers pick personalized black and white M&Ms from hand-sculpted ceramic bowls. The latter piece, titled "see, touch, feel, eat. pARTicipate!," created by Amy Hartmann-Ohlson, promotes viewer participation throughout the gallery.

Another piece, "Cancertainment," by Michael Gage Costa, also encourages viewers to engage in the artwork itself. Although the title appears utterly distasteful, the piece plays on such initial irony. "Cancertainment" is a video, construction and Wii-incorporated game that has players climb stairs to the "wheel of survival" which they "spin for your life" and hope to "land on white to survive." With its bright colors and lively nature, the game invites viewers to consider national statistics of the country's ever-present disease.

Continuing with the camp humor present in more than a handful of thesis projects, the piece "Buddhism for Dummies" draws a giggling crowd in a corner of the gallery. Created by Tony Tran, the piece comprises plaques depicting Buddhist principles such as the emptiness of material objects and relationships. Despite its simplistic drawings captioned with funny commentary, "Buddhism for Dummies" is secretly intelligent in its dumbing-down of one of the world's most-followed religions.

Some of the theses in First World Problems are a bit more serious and somber. Danielle Ramirez's "Unraveling Feeling and Fact" is one of these. A combination of eight acrylic and ink paintings, a video and an antique chair covered in tempera paint makes the piece a bit haunting. The cause of the chair's paint-covered state is revealed in the voyeuristic-like video in which paint is dumped on Ramirez while she sits in the once-untouched chair. The vulnerable nature of the video and the step-by-step paintings accompanying it give Ramirez's work a touch of solitude with a lot of significance.

There are endless surprises and intriguing creations included in First World Problems. With a piece called "The albino octo-cat in its natural environment," the exhibition proves that there is undoubtedly a bundle of young, fun and talented BFA students eager to burst into the art world. Unfortunately, the show closes on Saturday, but any students interested in seeing the efforts of all those art students we see on the EE bus should definitely check it out.