Riya Mukherjee ‘23 | Mia Cabral ‘22
The “Into the Light” exhibit will feature community-created paper squares that will cast shadows onto the walls of the CCC gallery running from November through January. The Install-It club will be highly involved in the exhibit and will help to distribute kits, which include paper for community members to create their designs on.
The project is inspired by the work of Anila Quayyum Agha, who in her “Intersections” project, brought together different communities in one exhibit. Ned Meisel ‘22, Student Leader of Install-It club, explains that through her project, “laser cut wood in very intricate patterns and used a powerful light bulb in the middle of it to make the shadows of the things that she cut out, the negative space, the artwork on the walls.”
David Sigel, Chair of the Upper School Arts Department, came across Agha’s work and thought it would be an appropriate way to bring the EA community together. Sigel explains that in Agha’s piece, different “cultures came together to make an amazing building in Spain…we had that idea of everyone in the community coming together to create a piece of art.” Susan Coote, CCC Gallery Coordinator, adds, “Even the metaphor of light worked perfectly, because of the chapel theme this year, so the name of the show will be ‘Into the Light.’”
The goal of this exhibit is to demonstrate inclusivity and a sense of belonging for all faculty and staff members as well as students in Lower School, Middle School, and Upper School. Meisel says, “by allowing people from Lower School all the way up to the seniors to make designs and they can do whatever design they want, and then by putting them all together it is really like forming our own EA community while showing so many different aspects of it from lower school to here.”
In terms of the gallery setup, there will be a large cube that incorporates the tiles created by community members, which, with light shining through, will project onto the walls of the gallery. In order to see the shadows more clearly, they will be cast on white walls. Meisel describes, “The negative space that we cut out is the artwork instead of painting artwork. It’s kind of like viewing artwork in a different way. Instead of painting and drawing, artwork can also be like shadows and light.”
Despite the piece being an art project, non-art students and all community members are welcome to participate in the showcase. Sigel explains, “Each person can add their own little square and become part of the whole. Even if you don’t want to make a square, you are invited into the piece, to become part of the piece, to be the thing that it projects on or your shadow is seen on the wall like everybody else.”
The process of cutting the tiles has already begun and EA art members are looking to spread the word about the project. In addition to art clubs such as Install-It participating in creating the square panels, Sigel says that in the coming weeks “we’ll have times outside the art studio and we are hoping to set up a cart and little kits, the dining hall.” Coote adds that they will also “bring in tables and create a workshop in the gallery.”
Meisel adds that with the kits, “all you have to do is use heavy paper and cut out and make designs in it. When we get all of those we will put them together as a grid so when the light shines through it, it will have heavy lines in between, so you can tell all the patterns apart but they are still all together.”
Franny Gallagher ‘23, member of Install-It Club, says, “I think that the project we’re working on highlights EA’s core values because it shows how individual perspectives come together to create something beautiful. Each section is a unique representation of a student’s creativity, but the finished product emphasizes unity throughout the student body.”