Alliance of Talent
Currently showing in the Memorial Student Union Arizona Gallery is Alliance, a collection of undergraduate student art. The exhibition has been an annual competition since 1979, showcasing a variety of photographs, paintings, prints and mixed-media works by students.
As the first place winner, Io Palmer's "Bag Calendar," demonstrates, innovation is the focus of the exhibition. Palmer's entry consists of 30 ceramic pouches of miscellaneous shapes and sizes, presented in the format of a month's calendar. Underneath each bag is nearly illegible penciled scrawl on the wall. The writings put the calendar in the context of a diary, with daily self-reflections like "I incessantly worry about what others think of me."
Ingenuity appears in a variety of other forms. Taking third place, "Stained," by Jody Sevron, creates abstract but organic shapes on rice paper with beet-juice. Over a canvas of Barbie-like silhouettes, Cecilia Brown's "Perfect Body" questions the conflict within a young woman posing for her audience. Josh Gravholt's mixed-media entries look like voodoo dolls with marks of gender: A phallus and long hair on one, bandages as nipples on another.
Variations on photography also seem to dominate the exhibit, whether in staged still-lives and portraits or finishing techniques. Brica Wilcox took second place for "Kathy," her photo-portrait covered in graphic marks, while Jennifer Laffoon's "Motel Series #4" received honorable mention for its ambiguous portrait scene.
Alliance will show through May 13 in the Arizona Gallery on the second floor of the Student Union.
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