Imogen Farris, Staff Writer
The “Pause” exhibit opened Saturday, March 14 at the Zuckerman Museum of Art on campus. The exhibit featured over 60 multimedia pieces of art from local artists and national artists such as Andy Warhol, Diana Flowers and Dawoud Bey. The art filled two large rooms in the museum, and each piece included a small description next to it. The description displayed the artist’s name, title of the piece and which theme the piece fell under. The themes featured were seek, skip, pause and stop.
There were many different art forms to see at the “Pause” exhibit. There were figurative paintings, drawings, photographs, videos, films and sculptures throughout the exhibit. A statue with teal-colored legs posed in a provocative stance was the highlight of the room next to the Henriquez Atrium. An interesting feature of the statue was the animated blinking eyes that brought the art to life. Christina A. West, who attended the opening event Saturday, created the statue titled “Pause.”
“Pause” features artists who have attempted to change or slow time through their artwork. One of my favorite pieces was titled “The Birmingham Project”, created by Dawoud Bey. The piece on display was just one of many that make up the entire collection. His portraits commemorate the four girls and two boys who were killed on Sept. 15, 1963 in Birmingham, Alabama. The children were some of the youngest victims of the Civil Rights Movement. The piece makes you stop and look as, on the left side, a young boy represents the age of one of the victims when he was killed, and on the right side, the age of the boy if he were still alive today.
The art pieces throughout the exhibit should reveal emotion as you walk through. Pictures of happy faces seemed to jump off the canvas. The “Pause” exhibit is unique, expressive and definitely worth visiting. The event will remain on campus through June 6, so you should have plenty of time to pause, look and reflect on the artwork. Best of all, admission is completely free.
