Everyone Must Go: Senior Art Show Marks
Last Good-Bye to Campus for Visual Arts Majors

Christine Clark | June 1, 2009

Jenny Yoo featured photographic images that resembled paintings.

When senior Mandy Jouan isn’t working as a toymaker, she creates delicate works made out of yarn featuring a monkey she calls Scooter. Jouan is just one of UC San Diego’s undergraduate students who exhibited their work during the fourth annual senior art show, “Liquidation: Everyone Must Go.” The three-day event kicked off Friday afternoon at Mandeville Center, where 75 of the best works from more than 30 students were on display.

This also marks the first year the senior art show partnered with The Loft@UCSD, where the exhibit came to an end Sunday night with mingling, music food, and art. The weekend-long event is a unique opportunity for student artists to exhibit their work—sometimes for the first time, according to Loft student worker Eleadah Vidales.
 
The show’s theme this year, “Liquidation,” reflects the fluid character of the various forms of art at the show, including traditional paintings, photography, short films, sculpture, music, performance art and interactive displays.

Senior Mandy Jouan’s yarn-paintings, featuring a monkey she calls Scooter.

“You never know what to expect,” said Jennifer Payton, a photography major who came to the art show Friday afternoon to support the seniors in the visual arts department. “A lot of the art classes here are conceptual, which gives the artists a lot of room to be creative.”

Students and faculty from the department of visual arts started off the event with a lively fertility-ritual performance involving singing, dancing and pyrotechnics. The student artists went beyond the canvas to create works made of found objects, natural materials and even trash. One student created a massive collage out of cardboard beer cases and soda cases. Senior Jackie Semmes showcased a lamp made out of tree leaves and branches. “As undergraduates we work so hard all four years,” Semmes said. “But most of the time no one outside of our classroom gets to see our work. It’s nice to get to have our art shown in this space.”

A painting by Risa Sugimoto called "Be Fierce!"

Senior Autumn Hays had four works on exhibit over the weekend, including a multimedia piece that documented a performance where Hays encased herself in a saran-wrap and duct tape cocoon at a public space. The senior had to breathe through a straw during the performance, an intense experience that surprised passers-by.  “I wanted to convey claustrophobia,” Hays said. “I also wanted to highlight how we feel surrounded by plastic.”

Hays said she likes to incorporate several different media in her art because she thinks artists should be versatile. She also exhibited “Separate,” a film that chronicled her attempt to separate water from mud in a bathtub.

Jenny Yoo featured photographic images that resembled paintings. Other artists such as Francis Hwee opted to draw on butcher paper. Meanwhile, more humorous works included Jouan’s yarn paintings depicting a sock-monkey and mascot. Although she likes to explore playful themes, it can take up to eight weeks for the textile artist to complete one painting.
 
Oana Alupoaie had several colorful drawings at The Loft with a tongue-in-cheek feel.  Kim Franklin had several photographs with powerful imagery that conveyed how people are attached to material possessions. Franklin, Alupoaie, Jouan and other students’ works can be seen at The Loft through June 15.