A semester’s worth of hard work will pay off as studio art majors showcase their talents and creativity in “Here Today, Gone Tomorrow V,” a one-night live performance and video art show put together by assistant professor and gallery coordinator Annie Strader.
The show will feature various types of art pieces from 12 different Studio Art majors in mediums of live performance, video, and video installation.
Strader said students have been intensely preparing all semester for this show. She talks about what the program is and the process of putting it together.
“The senior show is a wonderful capstone experience for our students,” Strader said. “It is exciting for all of the faculty to see the show and see how much the students have grown as artists during their time at SHSU. Students have been creating new works all semester, and towards the end, we select the works that will be included in the final show and they refine them based on the critiques they received in class.”
Senior studio art major Amber Eggleton is one of the twelve students who will be performing at the show and said the project will pull together work from the entire semester.
“The show will be comprised of multiple different performances the we have done throughout the semester, choosing our favorites to perform again for the final show,” Eagleton said. “Along with that, there will also be installations and video pieces as well.”
Eggleton said the will allow her to perform for a larger audience.
“I believe that this show will benefit me by giving myself and the rest of our class an opportunity to perform for a larger audience,” Eagleton said. “As of right now, we’ve mostly just performed for each other , so it will be an interesting experience. I will be doing a performance with my younger brother focusing on the ideas of what it means to have a want to care and protect someone, and how that want can also become an obligation to a person.”
Strader hopes the show enlightens the artists to a different style of performance.
“Performing in public is very different from hanging a painting or displaying a sculpture in a gallery,” Strader said. “These students are putting themselves out there in a way that most visual artists do not. I hope they have positive experiences in the show that give them the feeling of accomplishment and the desire to do it again.”
Strader said live performance art is very powerful and the audience will feel that.
“Audience members can expect a night to remember,” Strader said. “Performance art often provides unexpected and unique experiences and this show is full of wonderful pieces that are thought provoking and aesthetically stimulating.”
Strader is a veteran with this show and is confident that Wednesday’s performance will be successful.
“This is the fifth year that I have taught the class and each year the show has grown more popular and our audience has become larger,” Strader said. “I see more students wanting to enroll in the class after seeing the show. I also hear students talking to each other about their works and I see an over all better understanding of performance art in our student body and campus. We also get a good number of alumni who come back to see the show, which is wonderful to see how much the class meant to them.”
Eggleton had high praise for the show and Strader.
“This class is definitely one that changes a lot about the way you think as an artist,” Eggleton said. “You have to take all of the thoughts and concepts that you were working with before and find a way to turn them into actions that convey those same ideas. It’s a fantastic process to learn, and it is taught by an even more fantastic artist and professor.”
“Here Today, Gone Tomorrow V” will be a one-time only performance on Dec. 3 6 p.m. Performances are expected to run until about 7:15 p.m.
The show will be located at the Gaddis Geeslin Gallery in Art Building F. Admission is free.
