Among the exhibits from a fall semester Master of Fine Arts interdisciplinary media course on display Friday and Saturday, Dec. 4-5 is this piece by graduate student Andrew Beyke. (Photo provided)
December 01, 2021
SIU interdisciplinary media program students to host exhibition this weekend
CARBONDALE, Ill. – Five students in Southern Illinois University Carbondale’s Master of Fine Arts interdisciplinary media program in the School of Media Arts will show their work later this week.
The exhibition and publication release of “ECO” is Saturday and Sunday, Dec. 4-5, in the Communications Building’s Northlight Studio, Room 1251. The exhibit will be open from 6 to 9 p.m. Saturday and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday. A gallery opening reception is at 6 p.m. Saturday. SIU is committed to protecting the community, so all those attending this event must wear masks and follow current campus and state pandemic safety protocols.
The exhibition comprises the works of Cody Tracy and Andrew Beyke, who will graduate in the May 2022. The three other students, Nathaniel Ogden, An S., and Leah Sutton are first year MFA students.
The students, their interests and works are:
- Andrew Beyke, specializes in sound art installations and composition, “Duet.”
- An S., a game and web developer, “virus-game.”
- Nathaniel Odgen, a screenwriter, film theorist and film journalist, “Grief”
- Cody Tracy, works with poetry, cinema installations, performance and printmaking, “A Place Where We Can Live.”
- Leah Sutton, specializes in documentary and editorial photography and plans to continue working in botanical photography and printmaking, “Discovering How to Cope.”
A main theme of the variety of works is grief in its various forms and styles, according to Tracy in the program introduction. He also notes the collaborative effort within the class.
“From scriptwriters, to photographers, to sound artists, to installationists, video game creators, and more, there is a collection of artists working as a system for the sake of each other,” he wrote.
Beyke notes as a part of each students’ semester reflections, the importance the “unique outlook and creative touch” that each student has in shaping the exhibition.
“The group of MFA students that have grown together professionally and creatively throughout this course have been invaluable to the beginning of my MFA program at SIU,” Sutton said. “They have never failed to help me see a different side to my work as well as to each others’ creative processes.”
Heather M. O’Brien, an assistant professor in cinema who teaches the class, said each of the students spent a semester “building, growing, thinking and nourishing their practices in the community.”
“The willingness of these five artists to truly open to one another … will be the foundation upon which these works will morph and grow,” she said.
The School of Media Arts is within the College of Arts and Media.