A Show of Skulls

Photo by Rachel Wanat

The Studio Art 2D III and Studio Art 2D IV classes at Princeton High School hosted the opening of their Skull Show on Friday, the 13^th. The show took place in one of the high school’s art rooms, and featured seven pieces. The students were given an animal skull at the beginning of the year and told to “use it as a catalyst”.  Finding its meaning can lead to some rather interesting works, especially when in groups. Of the seven pieces, six were created by groups of two or three.

John Kavalos, who teaches the Studio art classes explains, “It’s all about context. The creative context of literally starting to explore and make decisions, ideas.” He continues, “It’s a very simple thing to learn, but it takes a while to learn.” 

Of the inspiration behind the projects he says, “They have to derive the content… You think about it, what an adolescent will initially say about skulls, given the way the media and the films have tried to depict that type of deal. We use [the skull] as a subject for them to start with, a catalyst, and then a context that is simple as the open-endedness of the material.”

The projects differed greatly, depending on the students’ reactions and interpretations of the skulls. A piece by Mark Reed was a print of a skull sewn into cloth, whereas (di/bo)vine sacrifice was a black lit room that required you take your shoes off before entering. The piece by Emily Goodman and Sabah Quasir encouraged interaction through the opening and closing of a curtain.

The opening had a large turnout, which was interesting given that it was held on an in-service day for the high school. “I’m surprised at how many people showed up, especially [seniors,]” says Gabriella Shypula. Shypula, a senior at the high school and director of the student-run art gallery, Numina, worked with fellow seniors Jessica Cusworth and Mirielle Vasselli. Their project was entitled (di/bo)vine sacrifice. Cusworth says, "A lot of people use religion as a motivator to do harm to people in order to get to paradise or heaven or whatever it is that they believe in.”

Vasselli explains the link between this thought and their project, saying, “So basically we took the idea of the skull as our subject matter. The skull that we chose was actually bashed in at the head so we took that as kind of abusing religion in order to manipulate it for violence.” Of their project, Shypula maintains, “We’ve been working really hard since the beginning of the year... It’s kind of been our baby for the whole entire year so it’s nice to see it up.”

Senior Bianca Carnevale worked with Nida Ahmed and Abby Jones to create a three-scene walk-through. Carnevale says of the project’s theme, “It’s nature versus society or civilization. For the first scene, we used oil paint on cardboard and it’s a lot more colorful than the second scene and it kind of shows the liveliness of the town. Then we used collage, like magazine paper for the ground and the sky. Then you walk through that scene and there’s a second scene and there’s printing paper, black and white printing paper for the buildings. It’s kind of just like the more distraught community and town. We also used black and white collage for the sky and the grass. The third scene is a skull that’s sewn onto black paper. It shows the result of the town, the effect that society has on nature.”

Seniors Victoria Barquin, Olivia Zuckosky, and Stephanie Klockenbrink used video in their presentation. The handout from the opening says that the group, “chose to interpret the skull as a representation of the dual-sided nature of the various morals and beliefs of people today. Our goal is not to prove anything or demonstrate any sort of bias through our project but rather we are trying to get our audience to think, and to question.”

In their project, viewers were asked to look through an eyehole to view a video compilation with scenes as diverse as clips from Mean Girls, a clip of a girl singing about how much she loved meat, to the torturing of a cow. All clips were taken from YouTube. The girls compiled the final edit.   The nature of the video required a disclaimer, and prompted mixed reactions from the viewers:  Abby Jones says, "I mean I honestly thought it was completely fine. It was the whole purpose of their project, which was juxtaposing the two videos next to one another. Perhaps they shouldn't have gone to such extremes, but it did suit the purpose of their project and they did purposely cut it off before it got too bad."

Spectator Devina Khanna says, "When I heard what was in the video, I couldn't get myself to watch it."

Students in Studio Art III and IV are typically juniors and seniors. Kavalos says, “There’s a particular time when young artists, creative people, start to look at the concept beyond, you know, the obvious, and it’s very difficult to do that, to have them question a literal definition of something, someone else’s kind of thought. It’s really quite an amazing achievement on their part. It really is. So you let it play out. You never know how it’s going to go. Last year was a really different show. The essence is basically to work creatively with discipline.”    

Barquin says, “I feel really proud of everyone’s commitment to their pieces and that everyone came to show their support. It’s really exciting.”

Jane Robertson, who takes Studio Art 2D II says, “I thought the way that the artists interpreted their chosen skulls was extremely interesting.” Also at the show was senior Lianyi Wang, who says of the show, “I absolutely loved it. It’s so amazing to see how talented my friends are and my grade is. I love art exhibits and I know how much time and energy the class put into their pieces. I especially love the symbolism that’s incorporated into pieces.”