Meg Colwell, a student in Ray Gonzalez's Ceramics class, set up an art installation at the library today. She presented the installation to the class this afternoon. In the photo below, she is the student wearing green standing to the right next to the art piece. Ms. Colwell has also included an artist statement, which  you can read below. Her installation will remain at the library for the next few days.

Hutchins Library has a tradition of hosting student art and installations, and we are happy Ms. Colwell shared her talents and art with her class and the college community.

 

 

Artist Statement:

My multiples project is intended to raise awareness of, and protest against, rape culture. Rape culture is the appropriation of rape. The media is the perfect outlet for rape culture to fester, spread, and thrive. For instance, TV sitcoms, movies, songs, etc. often joke about or make light of sexual assault. A good example is the horror, "Blurred Lines," by Robin Thicke. The song's title explicitly references consent (or rather, the lack of), and continues to tear down any sort of appropriate sexual conduct throughout the rest of the song.

Another good example is the slogan Bud Light printed on their beer, which I have replicated. "The perfect beer for taking 'no' out of the equation." Bud Light is endorsing rape culture to make money off of desensitized consumers, while also contributing to the desensitizing. I believe the multiples project was the most appropriate project to incorporate rape culture into. When you look at the bottles, you'll read the slogan over and over again. This helps replicate how we become so oblivious to society's diseases. The repetitive nature of the bottles represents how we can hear something so often it begins to seem normal. The multiple pieces also represent how many people are being affected by these messages. Rape culture is not particular to the mind it invades, and is projected throughout the media and our everyday lives always. Hence, the television. The TV is broken and filled with the bottles to depict how the media is full of these messages, and how messed up it is.

I hope this raises awareness and we call do our part to fight rape culture.