The landscape is their studio. Students in Outdoor Sculpture will spend their summer class session creating works of art outside. The class is taught by Lisa Gordillo (Visual and Performing Arts). It is Michigan Tech’s first fully-online sculpture class.
Gordillo is working with her students to build a class that creates connections with community (even at a distance). Students consider art, ecology, and social connection as they make their works of art.
The class has found inspiration from environmentally and socially engaged artists such as Lita Albuquerque, Shoehei Katayama, Nancy Holt, Andy Goldsworthy, and Rebecca Louise Law.
Student Mara Hackman’s first sculpture was inspired by Katayama’s work of art, Golden Repair. In that piece, Katayama uses emergency blankets to “repair” a glacial crack, referencing the Japanese tradition kintsukuroi, the ceramic practice of embracing flaws and imperfections by repairing them with gold. Hackman combined flowers and trash into a wave that followed a shoreline area near her home, considering environmental impacts and resilience.
Next up: students will make kites and hold an online community picnic.
The student gallery is on view until August 15. More works will be added each week.
Major: Civil Engineering
Studying Line. Daisies in rock (2020)
Major: Medical Laboratory Science
Studying Space: Balloons and string (2020)
Major: Wildlife Ecology & Conservation
Color splash drawing of sculpture #2. Pencil and ink (2020)
Major: Wildlife Ecology & Conservation
Studying Space. Balloons and string (2020)