Artwork currently in the SU Art Galleries exhibit “Not a Metric Matters” wasn’t centered around a theme — it was individually chosen by the curator.

For the first time since 2014, SUArt Galleries is hosting a faculty exhibition at the Shaffer Art Building, curated by DJ Hellerman. “Not a Metric Matters,” which opened earlier this month and runs through Nov. 24, will showcase Syracuse University faculty art right on campus, allowing students to see the art created by the professors whose class they’ve attended.

Faculty members from the School of Art, School of Design and the Department of Transmedia in the College of Visual and Performing Arts will be featured, said SUArt Galleries associate director Emily Dittman. She added this was a way to show the contemporary work they’ve been creating.

Courtesy of Don Carr

Unlike previous exhibitions at SUArt Galleries, the theme of “Not a Metric Matters” isn’t present in the art itself, but rather in those creating the art: the VPA faculty of SU, Dittman said.

Yasser Aggour, a featured artist and associate professor in the Department of Transmedia, said the piece he contributed was a series of photographs called “Killing Snails with Scissors.”

“The title comes from a literal fever dream,” said Aggour. “My son had a fever and started hallucinating about killing a snail with a scissor.”

Aggour’s photography reflects his belief that based on the current political and social climate, social media has become darker and more sensationalized, much like a “fever dream.”

For Aggour, he said he tried to create his own photography to the heightened level he sees on social media, adding this the kind of work people acknowledge.

“The ecosystem for imagery is really intense,” Aggour said. “You can’t possibly keep up. Here are hundreds of millions of photographs being produced every single day, so how do you make an image people will pay attention to.”

He said while the work is dark, it still has an inviting quality to it.

Heath Hanlin, an associate professor of transmedia, comes in with his own thoughts about the current social climate with his film titled “Branches” which explores line, light and sound.

Hanlin said that his work reflects the complexity of modern life. He uses lines in his film to emphasize to the audience that rather than staring at one or two lines, they should rather look at the bigger picture and see the trends the lines create.

Hanlin added he applied mathematics in his film for the lines, while also maintaining a free-flowing process in the video.

“It was pretty free flowing. We knew where we wanted to go and how to get there, but we left it pretty free,” he said.

Don Carr, a professor in the VPA School of Design’s MFA program and coordinator of the industrial and interaction design program, said he tackled something different in his piece entitled “Amber Waves.”

“Amber Waves” takes the form of wheat grains, and can also harvest wind and sun energy, he said. By making his work functional, he thinks it will allow people to better understand how natural energy is conserved, he said.

Carr said that “Amber Waves” is, about the hypnotic, rhythmic motion of seeing wind energy moving like a field of grain. The grans harvest the energy much like a sail — every time the shaft bends, the flexing creates electric resistance that will create a low level of electric energy, he said.

Faculty members involved in the exhibition will speak at the Shaffer Art Building or on campus, including at a gallery reception on September 12 so the SU community can interact with the art and artists

Published on August 28, 2019 at 12:08 am

Contact Mateo: mtestlin@syr.edu