by Xochitl Campos
Daily Lobo
It was interesting, provocative and controversial - everything an art exhibition should be.
One of the controversial pieces at the latest exhibition in the SUB's student gallery was on a computer screen.
Student artist Chad Person showed a seven minute video of a live parakeet who was dangling upside down with its feet tied up. In the video, the bird pulled himself up and attempted to fly away.
On the exhibit's stand was a statement from the Art Student Association explaining the clip was filmed in a little over a minute but was looped and is only 15 percent of real time.
Channel 13 got wind of the piece and showed up at the gallery opening to interview students who thought the piece showed animal cruelty.
Person was hesitant to talk about the subject because of possible litigation with Channel 13, he said.
"My bird lives free in my house and not in a cage," he said. "Because my bird was bound for a minute of its life, it's turned into such a big issue."
Observer Bob Andruzkiewicz agreed with Person.
"People can make controversy out of anything," he said.
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He said the media should pay more attention to issues of greater importance in the community.
"People do different things to their animals, and people do different things to their families," he said. "I don't know that I would do that, but I don't feel terrible that he is doing it."
Sage Paisner, UNM art student and curator of the show, wouldn't comment on the controversial art. He said explanations should be left up to the artist and, to a certain extent, the viewer.
Once the cameras left, the gallery's opening celebration returned to its previously lighthearted state.
Crowded around different works of art and plates of food were protÇgÇs and their mentors, 18 of them in all.
"I believe in artists working with other artists and people in the community," Paisner said .
The show's title was "Mentor's Alchemy." On the wall of the gallery Paisner had written a mission statement that included the definition of alchemy as a mystical science used "to achieve the transmutation of worthless base metals into gold."
He said the word related to the evening's artwork, because mentors act as alchemists who affect their protÇgÇs. The protÇgÇs in return act as alchemists when they create their art.
Another protÇgÇ artist, Steve Lindsley, exhibited several pieces of art that were meant to be touched by observers.
Among Lindsley's pieces was a hand he had molded from his own and cut and hinged at the joints to show movement.
"Personally, I like objects that can interact with people and be more playful with my viewers," Lindsley said as he looked through the huge plastic box encasing what he calls "mechanical adventures."
He said it's unfortunate that most art is "look but don't touch" but said he wasn't trying to be rebellious in his creation. He just wanted to do something different.
"In a perfect world, this would not be in a case," said fellow art student Dana Drum. "I mean, you could move it and touch it. It's unfortunate."
Informational signs and petitions were all over the gallery's entrance informing people that the space might be turned into a gym.
Paisner said he was alarmed.
"It really is an asset to the community," he said. "You would be ashamed if a student at UNM was not able to show their art."
This was an issue at the exhibition's opening, but it was not the focus, said featured artist Colin Edgington.
"We're just having an art show, but we are using it as a vehicle to tell people about what they are trying to do," he said.
