First-year Camosun College Visual Arts students are currently showing their work in the Foreward showcase at Lansdowne campus. Foreward—which has no set end date but will probably run until the end of June—showcases pieces from six different first-year students.
Camosun Visual Arts instructor John Boehme says that the critique area in the Young building between rooms 111 and 117, where the showcase is being held, is used for a reason.
“We use the critique area as an applied outcome for the students to learn what it takes to install artwork,” he says. “One of the outcomes is the Foreward exhibition, which is highlighting the accomplishments of a selected number of first-year students who are enrolled in a Visual Arts class.”
It’s the first time the showcase is running in this format, as the Visual Arts department held the more comprehensive Out of the Grey showcase for the past 15 years. Out of the Grey usually included works from about 20 to 25 students; Foreward is much more limited. The pieces in Foreward get chosen by a jury after the students apply for the showcase; Visual Arts student David Rigel Blazquez made the cut. Showing his art makes him excited, but it can be difficult, he admits.
“At the same time [as being exciting] it’s kind of awkward, because the pieces get attention, and that’s good, but also sometimes I’m kind of shy,” he says. “When I submitted these pieces, I wanted them to be showed with my classmates’ pieces, so we could share the space and see all the others’ work. So I think it’s important also to not [make] a big fuss about a piece ourselves. I enjoy doing it and that’s it, no glamour about it.”
Blazquez—who has two pieces in Foreward—says that one of his pieces stemmed from an assignment based on minimalism.
“I wanted to do something bigger than usual, to see if I could do it,” he says. “I just wanted to do something simple and very straightforward. So I played with angles and with 4 by 4 wood pieces and with screws—big, big, big screws. Probably I would say that my inspiration was just to find new stuff and enjoy the process with wood.”
University Transfer student Jonah Randall has a piece made out of concrete in Foreward. He says he got inspired by Constantin Brâncuși’s Endless Column, as the objective was to take a minimal piece to its truest form.
“I essentially took his design and then just wanted to make it as minimalist and basic as possible,” says Randall. “In his piece, there’s more angles and you can see the woodgrain out of his. I wanted to do mine out of concrete, just a raw material. And there’s a systematic part to it as well—each side is 3 inches by 3 inches and it come in three-quarters of an inch, which mathematically adds up to an inch and a half, which is half of three.”
Randall took his former work experience as a carpenter into account when deciding to make a piece made out of concrete.
“I do enjoy the look of concrete when it’s finished, but that was definitely the first time that I’ve played with a form and used concrete to complete that form, ” he says.
Randall says that he tried to make himself uncomfortable through his artwork this year and tried to push his own expectations.
“Developing an idea and then seeing how far I can take it. The Camosun studio definitely has everything available to really get your objective done, so to use that space as positively as possible, and just try and also not be afraid. If it goes wrong and breaks, whatever, oh well. At least you tried,” he says. “I tend to not play safe. I go big or go home, really.”