On Friday night, Elon University’s Arts West building hosted the opening of “Identity,” the senior thesis art exhibition for four seniors – Alexa Behar, Julia Caplan, Mary Peters and Jeffery Williamson. These pieces were the final product of a year’s worth of work, in which the artists had to prove their project’s merit and complete multiple pieces, only a few of which are in the final exhibition.
Identity is the all-encapsulating theme that tied each piece together. While each project explored a facet of identity, the true nature of each student’s project laid in his or her passion and execution.
Caplan’s younger sister, Christine, has Down Syndrome, and was the inspiration of Caplan’s project, “Vision Behind the Voice.” Caplan’s sister had trouble with verbal communication, but Caplan said she “could find joy and peace in something as simple as the rhythmic motion of a swing.”
Caplan collaged and painted images of her sister as well as images of highly posed models. Thus, her exhibit represented a spectrum of emotions, from the coolness of professional models to the impulsive joy she finds in her sister.
“All my work fell into a spectrum – from the high controlled models to the rawness and spontaneity of my sister,” Caplan said. “My hope is through the levels of collage, people will see the world in a grain of sand.”
Williamson also touched upon identity, but he explored gender identity. Raised in a predominately female household, he had different ideas of what being a man was. In his piece, “Practicing Manhood,” he expressed his critique against typical male roles.
“I was fascinated by the fluidity of identity and the social perceptions of identity, most specifically hyper-masculinity,” Williamson said. “I wanted to respond and challenge what we perceive as masculinity.”
The piece has transparencies of him acting in female stereotypes, with pictures of celebrities, such as Drake and Mr. T, acting out stereotypically male roles. His personal frustration with strict gender roles came through in his art.
The other two artists in the show, Behar and Peters, also explored their passions within identity. Based on psychological experiments, Behar interviewed people and only asked one question: “Who are you?” She took images during moments of high emotion. The result was a series of stills of her grandmother with audio from the interviews playing above.
Peters explored the importance of barbecue to Southern identity and culture as a tradition that binds the South. Her research resulted in a quilt representing her finds, incorporating photos from past and present on fabric.
It was not an easy feat for these students to get their pieces into the exhibition. They had to stand before a panel and defend the art they made. Being in the final exhibit meant their defense was successful. Despite the stressful process, the artists found joy in the payoff.
“I feel both humbled and relieved,” Williamson said. “I am humbled, because it’s very difficult at times and daunting, but in the end, it was so worth it. We had our failures, but we learned to build upon that.”
The exhibit, which will be on display in Arts West until next week, begs its audience to give a second thought about identity, showcasing the free thought and imagination senior art students have cultivated over the past four years.