By Alex Giannattasio

This week marks your last chance to witness some of New Brunswick’s finest up and coming artists at their best. The Mason Gross School of the Arts is currently hosting the second of three student thesis exhibitions form the Bachelor of Fine Arts program at 33 Livingston Avenue. The exhibition, affectionately titled Untitled #2, will be open to the public until April 17^th, so hop on the EE, make your way on over there and check it out while you still can.

I was offered the distinct pleasure of a private tour of the exhibition over the weekend, an offer I could not possibly hesitate to accept. Perusing the many pieces on display at my leisure, I was struck more than anything else by the sheer diversity of the collection. Rarely does one get the chance to see such a varied collection of fine art gathered in one place. Graphic designers displayed their handy work next to photographers, next to painters, next to performing artists, next to graffiti artists, and everything in between. Rather than confine themselves to a traditional framed-canvas model, the pieces here flow right out into the viewer’s space, blurring the line between art and observer. Many of the pieces are interactive in interesting and thought provoking ways; you will almost certainly be pleasantly surprised with what you find. All of the pieces demonstrated talent at work; I could go on at length about many of them, but in the interest of your time, I’ll only explicate here a few that stood out to me as particularly noteworthy.

Sindhoori Sridhar, an up and coming graphic designer of some skill, designed a giant two-dimensional maze, spanning two full gallery walls. Stand back from the piece, and several incendiary, sometimes disturbing statements jump out at the viewer. Move closer and you find that the maze is not only functional, but that the viewer is actually encouraged to attempt the daunting task. Pencils are provided. The pathetic attempts of previous viewers who tried and failed navigate the treacherous landscape mock the viewer, as if daring him to attempt the impossible; it is a task which would give the savant a run for his money.

Larry McAllister took a unique approach as well. He designed a questionnaire, and handed out several hundred copies. Collecting and collating the results, he proceeded to paste them to the wall, side by side to form a large rectangle. Using pushpins and yarn, he literally tied together the connections from person to person, the result of which is a wall-sized web of the links between the participants. The overall effect is a social matrix demonstrative of how similar and interconnected we are as a whole.

Alana ‘Platy’ Burman’s piece was for me, a show stealer. Her work is easily the largest at the exhibit: an enormous, fantastic landscape, freehand drawn completely in pencil directly on the white washed walls allocated to her. Two, two by two light boxes illuminate some of her most detailed representations, a giant masculine tiger juxtaposed to a smaller creature with the nude body of a woman and the head of a rodent. Together, these two figures clearly represent the struggle between the masculine and the feminine. But while these two figures are highlighted, they are certainly not alone; as a whole, the work is entirely overwhelming in its scope. Fantastic creatures roam the wall, interacting in odd and confusing ways, exhibiting a broad range of emotions. What is most impressive about her work is the extent to which Alana manages to bring out these emotions using only a pencil (or rather many pencils, I’m sure). Wholly imagined imagery collides with hints of the Super Mario Brothers. In all, the piece successfully provides the viewer access to a fantasy world of elaborate proportions, of which only the likes of Alana (and maybe the Japanese) could imagine. Though impressive, her piece is far from serious, allowing the viewer to laugh without pretention, something we could all use a little bit more of in these troubled times. Nevertheless, hers is clearly the work of a dedicated and talented artist willing to spend several sleepless nights on the gallery floor.

These are just a few of the many works showcased at this mid-semester thesis exhibition. Many more gems are waiting there for you to find. If you haven’t yet made it down to the show, make sure you go before you miss out. Your last chance is this Friday.