Twenty-seven second-year Visual Arts students are currently hard at work getting their graduation show, Elsewhere, ready. The 37th graduation show put on by Camosun students in the program, Elsewhere has an ambiguous title that has given the artists freedom to interpret and create as they see fit.
Talking with two graduating students, Owen Parnell and Kellen Read, it becomes clear that art pieces in the show will be varied, making for a unique, multimedia collection.
“In my 2-D work I’m inspired largely by psychedelic art, complex geometries, and automatism,” says Parnell. “Working impulsively. But at the same time trying to balance my impulse with some kind of structure to make it a conversation between control and lack of control.”
Read started his time at Camosun in the Environmental Studies program, and never considered himself to be too creative.
“I’m really so informal when it comes to my practices,” says Read. “When it comes to painting I really don’t like formalities. I pant with cardboard. I paint with my hands, and with spray-paint. I like to keep it dirt grimy, and like it should be on the streets.”
The two-year program is intensive and structured, something that was difficult for Parnell, who, prior to starting at Camosun, was already a professional artist. Though difficult at times, Parnell says he appreciates the way the constraints of the program were able to mold his perspective on art making.
“I didn’t think that the type of work I liked doing could work in a gallery setting or in the contemporary art culture,” says Parnell. “But, I’ve realized that it actually can. I can harmonize with the kinds of things that I’m interested in, and the kinds of things that are interesting to certain groups.”
Read admits to struggling with the formalities of art, and that he’s excited about the prospects of life post-graduation.
“If anything this program has taught me time management, or, that we all we kinda lack it,” says Read. “I feel like for two years I haven’t slept. I’ve been here every Saturday, Sunday. I’m really looking forward to finishing up at this point. I’m heading down to L.A. and I just want to take in the street culture there, and see if it inspires anything.”
Elsewhere means something different to all of the students that are a part of it. For Read, the name of the show parallels the anticipation around graduating.
“To me, ‘elsewhere’ is what I’ve been focusing on for two years,” says Read. “It’s a very broad term. I don’t think that any of us have a great understanding of what we want to do, or where we want to go. We just know that we have somewhere to go, and that place is elsewhere.”
As the preparations for the exhibition are underway, Parnell is full of admiration for all of the work and time that his classmates have been putting into it.
“We’ve been committed to this beyond full time, 12-hour days or more to this for the past two years,” says Parnell. “The show is going to be a culmination of that. So, it’s going to be really, really good.“
Elsewhere
April 17-24
11am-7pm
Free, 851 Yates St.
Elsewhere on Facebook