Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Document Type

Poster

Publication Date

Spring 5-14-2015

Faculty Advisor(s)

Marcus Herse

Abstract

My senior BFA exhibition is a project bringing awareness and reflection to the college subculture of drinking. I am creating a large installation (approx. 10x20ft) made out of over 4,000 red plastic cups in the shape of a Catholic Church altar. The cups are stacked and glued together in order to create patterns to separate the forms of the altar (three stairs, columns, the facade arches). The installation is shown at Chapman University's Guggenheim Gallery and must be site specific in order to reflect the nature of its existence and purpose. The installation reflects a parallel between forms of ritual: the ritual of binge drinking college students participate in, and the rituals associated with being in church. By using the form of an altar to display the cups, I hope to signify that drinking is a form of ritual. The form also represents a place of worship, as it seems as if students often seem to worship or place unusual reverence on the drinking and partying culture as if it had divine importance. Most viewers will be able to instantly recognize the red cup as a popular drinking vessel made famous by its symbolism of college party culture. I hope to harness this symbol and create a physical space with repetition of the material in order to question the culture in which I currently live in.

Comments

Presented at the Spring 2015 Student Research Day at Chapman University.

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