A still image from “Transistor,” an experimental video by SIU graduate student Jordan Faye Bardgett, is part of the “On Slippery Grounds” installation on Friday, May 2. (Image provided)
April 29, 2025
SIU School of Media Arts students to showcase ‘On Slippery Grounds’
CARBONDALE, Ill. — A unique blend of multimedia and performance art by undergraduate and Master of Fine Arts students in Southern Illinois University Carbondale’s School of Media Arts will be featured on Friday, May 2, in the Communications Building on campus.
“On Slippery Grounds” is from 6 to 9 p.m. and will showcase the works of 10 students. The free, public event will feature live performances from 7-8 p.m. in Room 0012 in the building’s basement, with detailed maps and programs available there to guide the audience to various locations in the building where other work is featured. The event is intended for mature audiences.
The exhibition, performance and open studio event is the culmination of the graduate studio arts practice MFA course led by assistant professor Heather M. O’Brien-Takahashi, and the live art course taught by associate professor Rob Spahr, both cinema and interdisciplinary media faculty in the School of Media Arts. The performances are short — each under 10 minutes — and span a range of media, approaches and disciplines, O’Brien-Takahashi said.
The showcase “reflects the interdisciplinary and experimental ethos of the two courses and brings together personal, political and poetic inquiries,” O’Brien-Takahashi said.
“The works are catalysts for dialogue as much as they are reflective moments situated in today’s complex landscape,” she said.
Installations reflect present geo-political movement
“On Slippery Grounds” resonates strongly with how the artworks and performances “both respond to and reflect the current geo-political movement,” O’Brien-Takahashi said, adding that visitors can expect “an eclectic and vibrant evening with a range of mixed-media arts and unique performance art and installation.”
The diverse group of students will each present a live performance or installation they developed over the semester using a wide range of mediums — movement and text, to sound art, internet art, film, video, sculpture, photography, glass and metalworks.
“The performances are intimate, experimental and rooted in each artist’s evolving practice,” O’Brien-Takahashi said.
There are eight candidates in the MFA in mass communication and media arts program who work across various areas, and two are undergraduate students, O’Brien-Takahashi said.
The MFA students are Jordan Faye Bardgett, Diazha Berry, Skyler Foy, Ashish Kumar P, Drew McGinniss, Saba Raissian, Shruti Rao and Drew Yepsen. The undergraduate students are Dahlia Dahl, a junior in cinema, and Andrew Locke, a junior in radio, television and digital media.
As with all exhibitions, the artwork represents the viewpoints of its creators, not SIU. SIU complies with the Illinois Governmental Ethics Act and State Officials and Employees Ethics Act.