If you've passed the Hopkins Center in the past few days, then you've probably seen the unsettling figure and natural cyclone caught inside the rotunda at the main entrance. The tableau seems to move, as if the man is surrounded by climbing vines springing from his own head.
"Proregression" is a collaborative installation recently completed by two studio art majors, Thuy-Tien Hoang '07 and Jose Ojeda '07. In their artist statement, the artists elucidate their intention for the installation, referencing mankind's increasingly complicated world and the "fine boundaries between progression and regression."
The work is intended as a commentary on the self-inflicted frenzy of the modern world and the integral simplicity that can be found in nature. This concept is brought to visual fruition in the form of a clay figure brought to his knees by the uproar around him, a swirl of vines that leave his mind and churn inside the rotunda.
The fierce nature of the work might be attributed to the challenges of collaboration, which both artists recognized as particularly difficult.
"Since we're both perfectionists, occasionally excessive and impractical ... the process of completing the piece included inevitable frustrations that frequently led to moments of silence where I couldn't help but ask what I had gotten myself into," Hoang said.
The collaboration was assigned as part of the artists' Sculpture II class with professor Soo Young Park.
"She asked, 'Who wants to work the rotunda?' and we both leapt at the opportunity," Ojeda said.
"We both wanted to create something great, and of course we had our own ideas. There was a lot of 'I told you so' when one of us made a mistake. At one point we were so frustrated that we contemplated dividing the rotunda right down the middle, and seeing who's piece would beat the other. I'm glad we didn't," he said.
The resulting installation is an abrasive work, reminiscent of gothic imagery and "The Scream" by Edvard Munch, depicting man in an outburst of frustration. The installation is particularly effective at night, as the central figure is lit from below, and a blue tint falls from above. The baroque scene is set vividly amidst the glowing facade of the Hop.
"'Proregression' was really emotionally driven and literally infused with everything from tears to smiles," Hoang said. The work is a tortured blend of both artists' talents and styles, which they recognized as a difficult but useful process.
"I usually work with wood, plaster and sometimes found objects. Outside of 'Proregression,' most of my art is done on a very large scale and it can vary from large wooden pieces to wall installations created with recycled materials and trash," Hoang said.
"I have no definitive medium that I work in, I like jumping around... I do a lot of graphic design work," Ojeda said.
"Most of the time, my art is abstract but since working on 'Proregression,' and particularly the clay figure, I've become really interested in the representational figure," Hoang added.
The difficulty of combining two artists' unique visions into one coherent piece was hard enough, but the artists also ran into other roadblocks.
"We dragged about 360 pounds of concrete mix and sand from the studio to the rotunda, which at 4 a.m. in the rain and cold was not a pleasant experience. After doing all of this, we found out that we only had enough to pour a quarter of what we needed to complete the piece," Hoang said.
"So at the last minute, we had to cover up the semi-finished concrete board and alter our theme," she continued.
In the end, the process of creating the work echoed the installation's intended statement: there was give and take between the artists, and a pronounced sense of progress and regression. Both artists were forced to face their frustrations with each other, themselves and their exterior circumstances.
"What you see before you is ... the result of the constructive blend of voicing one's ideas and opinions and at the same time, silently submitting to each others' better judgment. Hence, within that, there is some of the progression and regression," Hoang and Ojeda said in their artists' statement.
"Proregression" will on view until Thursday morning.
