To culminate his final semester as a wonderful arts main at Cal State Fullerton, fifth-year sculptor Owen Wilkins showcased “Constructed Patterns,” his first exhibit within the Leo Freedman Gallery, at a public reception on Wednesday.
The campus galleries are up to date each different week with three scholar artist showcases on show. Five complete teams are proven all through the semester. On show from Oct. 14 to Oct. 18, Wilkins’ items belong to the second spherical of scholar gallery exhibitions this fall.
“I make sculptures to communicate my observations of the world and my philosophical musings through the layers of meanings contained in and around the objects I create,” Wilkins wrote in his exhibition notes. “I want to spark thought and exploration in my audience, to poke them and confuse them just enough to tip them over the edge of the philosophical rabbit hole.”
Wilkins accomplished his six constructed sample sculptures this summer season in a couple of month, along with his largest and most time-consuming piece that includes a mess of individually glued drumsticks.
The title “Expanding at a Decreasing Rate” hints at what the sculpture exemplifies.
“The universe is expanding at a decreasing rate. We started at the Big Ban — exploded. It’s getting bigger, but that expansion is slowing down, which means eventually it will stop expanding and start shrinking and return it back to a single point, and that’s the significance of this piece. The bottom layer of sticks is perfectly symmetrical. It’s a mirror,” Wilkins mentioned.
Rather than garnering inspiration from a specific artist, Wilkins’ ardour and creativity are fueled by his lived experiences.
“[I get] inspiration more through personal experience and pain, not physical but more emotional pain. Also things that I wish were different about either the art world, specifically myself or our power structures,” Wilkins mentioned.
His second largest sculpture on show, “The Shaky Foundations of Knowledge,” is made from picket drum shells, metal drum shells, metal drum hoops, aluminum and numerous nuts and bolts, contributing to its placing and rhythmic look.
“Constructed Patterns is designed to explore the dichotomy between order and chaos, repetition and randomness. This work uses drums, drum parts, and drum accessories as pieces of iconography to represent these patterns and lack thereof,” Wilkins wrote within the description of the piece.
Wilkins’ overarching message is that it is very important decompress and revel in life with the restricted time that we’re given.
“The idea, the message of the piece, is everything ends, nothing’s permanent. Everything that gets done will become undone,” Wilkins mentioned. “So nothing matters. And I think when nothing matters, nothing has to matter. It gives us a lot more room to relax and try and enjoy it in all aspects.”
Pedro Maradiaga, CSUF alumnus and social media strategist for the College of the Arts, mentioned these exhibitions permit college students to boost their artistry by inspecting different technique of expression outdoors of their experience.
“I think the best way to do good art is to get involved in other forms of artwork,” Maradiaga mentioned. “If you’re someone that draws, you should definitely go see music, go see dance, cause then you can see how people move.”
Amy Tran, a CSUF alumnus and former studio artwork main, talked about that these reveals encourage and encourage her artistry by seeing how different artwork majors execute their inventive imaginative and prescient.
“I feel like it broadens my knowledge on the stuff you can do, especially because I do glass blowing and a lot of other sculpture art,” Tran mentioned. “I feel like I get to not only learn different materials you can use to make art, I can just see how others think to put stuff together.”