This past Sunday, Michael Ashkin’s studio art class participated in a group show organized in part by Shara Wasserman, in conjunction with Temple Tyler and RISD art students at the Circolo Degli Artisti. Participating students included: Rebecca Ashby-Colon (yours truly), Cynthia Baker, Zahra Chevannes, Erin Ferro-Murray, Emily Greenberg, Jeremy Handrup, Charlotte Krause, Samuel Pelts, Michael Picos, Emma Pryzbylinski, Dan Rosen, Anne Wu, and Xu Yang. The work presented various in medium and size, and generally acted as a follow-up to our most recent critique and precursor to our final critique.
We arrived at Circolo on Sunday at noon to install our works, and found that despite our best efforts to set up quickly and leave to get ready at home, there was only one ladder, which was circulating between the two other schools as well. We did eventually get our turns with the ladder as well, but not before a lot of grumbling was heard throughout the room. The major catch of the space was that we were not allowed to attach anything to the wall, whether it be with nails, tacks, or tape. Thus, every piece had to be secured with either chains or fishing line, tied to a pipe running the perimeter of the ceiling. A few paper cuts and several muffled obsenities later, I finished hanging my (very crooked) drawings, and headed home. Many of my classmates were still in the process of installing their works when I left, so when I returned at 7:00pm, the space had been totally transformed. Spotlights were on each student’s work, and blue lights filled the rest of the room with a funky vibe, bouncing off the red walls. The garden outside, where some of the RISD work was displayed, was warm and bright with fairy lights. Thankfully, it was a warm evening without rain, and we enjoyed the rest of the work with our complimentary drinks. Thank you to everyone (students and professors) who made the trek to Circolo to support us!
