Photo by Stephanie Ryden
Shira Cluff with her work at the student gallery openings in the Art building and the Marion Ady building on Thursday, Nov. 20.

Snakes, cakes and chicken wire kicked off the student gallery reception last Thursday.

{Art Accumulation: Evoking Story & Memory} offered students and the community an opportunity to take part in a collaborative art project in the Schneider Museum of Art. The project revolves around the idea of recycling, preservation and community.

Guest artist Wilkins-O’Riley Zinn, the visionary behind the Art Accumulation piece, provided a table of different items she found at thrift stores or free boxes. Objects ranged from toy figurines to plastic watches. Participants were asked to pick an item that evoked a memory and then write down the memory on colorful tags.

“I picked this little toy lizard that reminded me of a story. We all took a piece of something,” said Shayla Davis, junior environmental studies major and receptionist for the Schneider Museum.

After choosing an item and writing a memory, participants attached both the tag and the object to a chicken wire sculpture. The culmination of the tags and objects on chicken wire completes the piece, which allowed the participants to help create the art form.

During the art project, the museum provided a “snake cake,” which was a large, white sheet cake covered in multicolored gummy worms. Sparkling water and Tootsie Pops were also offered as snacks.

The Art Accumulation event coincided with the term’s last student gallery opening. Five exhibitions opened, two in the art building and three in the Marion Ady building.

Shira Cluff presented her series of large paintings on construction paper in the art building. The exhibit, titled “DeepSpace SeaScapes” was a project of revision and rethinking, according to Cluff. Her artist’s statement ended with a quip relating to the viewer’s possible confusion over her work. It read, “Stuck? Walk away, and come back next year.”

Adjacent to Cluff, a multitude of wax hands reached out from the floor of the Retzlaff Gallery. Kandace Collins’ “Critical Mass” showcased dozens of hands contorted in different shapes.

“This work deals with a psychological state made physical. I want to share with the audience the sense of being overwhelmed by issues or struggles of one’s own making,” Collins said about the concept behind the exhibit.

Across the courtyard in the Marion Ady building, dozens of fake rose petals littered the ground. Mallory Francis’ exhibit, “Obsessions,” consists of a purple metal corset with black ribbons and a series of prints featuring women. Heels and skin dominated the prints, evocative of the exhibit’s obsessive, fetish theme. Francis admitted that the work itself is her obsession.

“I have always been intrigued by the curvaceous nature of this world,” said Francis.

The two remaining exhibits were “Apextual Beat,” a series of black and white photographs by Sarah Doegah, and “Domesticity,” a clay installation by Leisel Meissner. Meissner’s work displays a series of house items dipped in white, unglazed clay.

“I strive to create environments in which the newer becomes emerged,” said Meissner.

The student galleries in the art building and Marion Ady building will be on display during regular school hours until Dec. 12. For more information, call the Art Department at 552-6564. For more information about the museum, call 552-6245.