Zachary Rodriguez
Staff Writer
The Harris Art Gallery exhibit “Imaginary Selves” featured eclectic masterpieces from several local artists, including the “Caring For You” exhibit by Lisa Jevbratt.
“Caring For You” featured dolls created to resemble Jevbratt’s ancestors. Each of the dolls symbolized a rebirth of each of her grandmothers and contained DNA from those who they represent and the clothing from her young daughter.
The dolls were made to feel like you were holding a real baby. Jevbratt invites visitors to sit in her living room exhibit setting and hold and cradle the dolls.
“(Jevbratt) likes to play around with (the dolls) and hold and talk to them so she said she wanted people to be able to experience the same thing but she wanted to do it through her grandmothers,” junior art gallery assistant Mariela Martinez said.
The “Caring For You” exhibit also included a snowglobe made out of Jevbratt’s cat’s ashes, her own blood and one of her grandmothers hairs.
“I asked why the cats ashes and she said that she used to call her cat ‘mom’ and thought it would fit,” Martinez said.
“Imaginary Selves” also demonstrates different types of media and imagination from artists Jane Callister, Viêt Le, Brian McArthur, Catalina Jaramillo Quijano and James Van Arsdale.
McArthur’s work consisted of four different statues made of porcelain and wood. Each statue symbolized different parts of his life.
“Constructing Self” is a statue of a head made of wood and two clay figures, a sculptor and his sculpture, coming out of the back. This piece is meant to show the construction of oneself.
Imagination is the reoccurring idea in each of the works of art.
“I really did not enjoy just one thing. I really enjoyed how the show came together as a whole,” senior art major Jordan Nesbit said.
Quijano and her two works show a dream like state that leaves one questioning the meaning behind them.
“It was great seeing how the different pieces have their own stories and the raw emotions that helped create them,” undeclared freshman Natalie Kjer said.
James Van Arsdale’s work has an interactive element that he uses to immerse visitors in the different pieces of art on the wall and sculptures down on the floor.
The music really put all of the pieces of the work together and unified them into a collective piece rather than separate objects.
“The intersecting of the different media made this exhibition a complete success,” sophomore music major Lisa Quezada said.
From Le’s video to Jevbratt’s mixed media dimensions one can see how the theme really creates a flow of imagination that permeates the whole gallery.
Leaving the exhibit, one continues to think about the pieces on display, wondering if they contain still more themes that might have gone unseen upon the first viewing.
The exhibit kickstarts imaginations and also allows one to look inward.
“Imaginary Selves” will be on display at the Harris Gallery through March 10.
Kat Simonelli also contributed to this story.
Zachary Rodriguez can be reached at zachary.rodriguez@laverne.edu.
Zachary Rodriguez