Vivian Hall Project

One of the sculpture professors, Malcolm Cochran, got permission for 18 grads and undergrads to do site-specific art installations in a partially-abandoned building, Vivian Hall, on OSU's campus. This hall was built in 1952, and housed a dairy production facility, as well as labs and offices for agriculture and food science. As participants in the project, we had to come up with art pieces that spoke about some aspect of the building's history, usage, architecture, or general feel. Opportunities like this don't come along very often, so we were all excited. On Sunday, March 11th, we had a one-day opening event for the Vivian Hall Project. This project lasted the entire winter quarter, so it was really great to see the final art installations.

My project is the last shown in this slideshow. It covered the entire length of the hallway, and was made using paper found in Vivian Hall and tape. I was inspired by a section of taped paper remnants that I found in one of the offices. It struck me as interesting that these papers were at one time of enough importance to tape to the wall, but then became obsolete and were torn down. It made me think about events, information, and the passage of time in Vivian. It also had a lovely geometry that seemed almost like a design element. So along the length of the hallway, I created a line of taped corners, and in some areas, a cluster or flurry of the corners and tape remnants. It was fun to see how many viewers did not immediately (or ever) see the piece because of their acceptance that it was indigineous to the space prior to us being there. For those who did "discover" it, hopefully they began to see how art and the everyday are not that far apart.

Here's a slide show; if you want to see a more extensive one with captions, let me know: