Artists jointly examine chance, experimentation in ‘Strike It Lucky’ exhibit
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Sculptures, paintings and film projections have filled the walls, the floor and even the ceiling of the Nancy Cantor Warehouse gallery this summer. Regardless of medium, the works revolve around the idea that art is experimental and the many occurrences in the creative process that happen by chance.
“It’s about artists who are picking up different mediums and exploring that, like we heard tonight, a lot of experimentation with memory and how things evolve over time,” said Lauren Baker, the art exhibition operations coordinator for Syracuse University’s College of Visual and Performing Arts.
The Warehouse’s current “Strike It Lucky” exhibit opened June 4. Since then, visitors have viewed work spanning from jewelry, photography and other media, with each artist experiencing the theme of luck and chance in the artistic process in their own way. The exhibit includes art from undergraduate and graduate students, faculty and alumni. Baker based the theme of the exhibit — which is open until Friday — on the unpredictability of creating a piece as an artist.
For planning the works featured in the exhibit, Baker sent out an online application for the exhibit and received approximately 60 to 70 responses; around 30 applicants were accepted to showcase their work. Baker encouraged the artists to use mediums they don’t specialize in, pushing them out of their comfort zones and helping them throughout the process.
Barbi Touron’s “Plant Seeds and Grow” is featured in the “Strike It Lucky” exhibit. The display explores the unpredictability of the artistic process. Arianna Waichungo | Contributing Photographer
One MFA student, Hayley Peisher, abandoned her specialty in painting for a wooden sculpture of a chainsaw that used a loud motor to spin the blades. Peisher said the piece is a replica of the historic chainsaws used by doctors for cesarean sections, highlighting the lack of care female patients face.
Going through a chronic illness herself, Peisher said she experienced firsthand the negligence of doctors when it comes to women’s healthcare.
“I’m just trying to open up the conversation of traumatic procedures that occur to women,” Peisher said.
That experience translated into Peisher’s work on exhibit. Peisher learned how to wire and create a motor for her sculpture. She said she learned how to create this primarily through video tutorials online. Though her piece wasn’t prominent in size, she wanted it to invade the space of the gallery through its sound, forcing people to pay attention to the issue at hand.
Annabella Berry, a VPA senior, supports the Warehouse by attending all of the exhibitions they put on. But she said the walk and talk for “Strike It Lucky” was a positive aspect of the exhibit because she got to hear from the artists live.
“I overall just feel a lot more connected to the work in the gallery and the artists in the gallery,” Berry said. “I think it shows me the importance of knowing or trying to know the artists.”
Berry attended the exhibit’s Walk and Talk event on Friday, where she heard from each of the artists about their work and learned more about them as people and creatives.
Walk and Talk visitors traveled across three different rooms, while each artist explained the origins of their work and took questions, creating a conversational and personal experience for the audience.
Shokoofeh Jabbari, a teaching assistant and part-time instructor in VPA, chose a similar approach for her multimedia photo collages, leaning into noise and environment in her piece. Jabbari’s photo collage immersed the audience in her memories.
Housed in a small room, a collage of photos is placed in nonlinear directions on the walls while a collage of sounds plays in the background. Jabbari said she wanted to replicate the feeling of looking back at one’s own memories — almost nauseous and overwhelmed.
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Jabbari used artificial intelligence to bring the pictures to life. She transformed unpleasant memories into happier ones by adding smiles to the photo subjects, redefining her story.
“Maybe they can relate to my wall, maybe not, maybe they are from a different background,” Jabbari said. “Someone from other countries won’t understand all my experience, but maybe smiling they can understand.”
Environment was also an important factor in MFA student Lindsey Richards’ work. Her wall was painted to look like a cozy living room. She incorporated nature into her piece to recognize that connecting with one’s environment is part of the human experience. Real tree branches surrounded the painting, with dirt laid on the ground of the gallery. In hindsight, Richards said she would’ve liked to focus more on the aspect of changing environments.
“To really appreciate and live authentically is to also embrace the end,” Richards said. “We’re like our environments. We’re transitory. We’re always changing.”
Richards didn’t have an initial meaning for this work; she made the piece and then thought about its significance, leaning into her intuitive artistic process. She drew inspiration primarily from German expressionist films and old horror movies, which focus on eliciting a feeling rather than portraying reality.
Baker said she was amazed at how successful the walk and talk was, and she loved hearing the artists’ stories and how they interpreted the “Strike It Lucky” theme. She encourages people who enjoyed the Walk and Talk to attend the exhibit’s closing reception on Friday.
“For people to be here and participate in a show that is bringing together artists in different periods of their careers and in their lives, I thought it was amazing,” Baker said.
