{"id":3904,"date":"2018-10-04T15:30:58","date_gmt":"2018-10-04T15:30:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.centre.edu\/cento\/?p=3904"},"modified":"2018-10-04T15:30:58","modified_gmt":"2018-10-04T15:30:58","slug":"an-experience-with-glass-centre-alum-embraces-the-playful-and-ominous","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/2018\/10\/04\/an-experience-with-glass-centre-alum-embraces-the-playful-and-ominous\/","title":{"rendered":"An Experience with Glass: Centre Alum Embraces the Playful and Ominous"},"content":{"rendered":"

BY KIT HAIST – STAFF WRITER<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

A Centre student who enters the Jones Visual Arts Center \u2013 or JVAC \u2013 is probably either pursuing an art degree, taking an elective, or attending the odd humanities class taught in the building. As a result, most of Centre\u2019s population may remain unaware of the art JVAC hosts in the Aegon Gallery.<\/p>\n

From now until October 27th, the Aegon Gallery is showcasing \u201cSurvey of Works\u201d by Centre Alumni Ch\u00e9 Rhodes, \u201995.<\/p>\n

Rhodes\u2019 artistic path began at Centre under the mentorship of Professor Stephen Powell, the head of the glass-blowing studio. \u201cI had a moderate interest in art and probably a stronger one in fire, but [Stephen Powell] is the person who introduced me to glass,\u201d Rhodes explained. He cites Powell as his strongest influence in glass, art, life, and even his \u201cpreferences in snack foods.\u201d<\/p>\n

Following in his mentor\u2019s footsteps academically, Rhodes teaches students as well. He is currently the Head of Studio Glass at the University of Louisville, where he began teaching in 2005.<\/p>\n

An important feature of the glass-blowing studio that shaped Rhodes was how Powell ran, and continues to run, the studio itself. \u201c[Powell] has always included students in the management, growth, and maintenance of the facility which has given our students tremendous practical experience and has aided them in landing prime opportunities to further their careers in glass,\u201d said Professor Judith Pointer Jia, who organized Rhodes\u2019 gallery.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe scale of his artwork makes it hard to ignore and the combination of materials \u2013 glossy glass and various metal textures \u2013 pulls you in,\u201d Jia offered, when asked to describe Rhodes\u2019 works.<\/p>\n

She went on to explain how these and other nuances of art are often lost on students who study works only in class, and therefore \u201chaving art in the gallery for students to view in person is a highly valuable teaching tool and learning experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

Having worked closely with Rhodes, Stephen Powell emphasized the personal aspects of his art.<\/p>\n

\u201cCh\u00e9\u2019s work is very introspective! At the risk of alienating the viewer, Ch\u00e9 is making a personal statement that satisfies his need for expression,\u201d he stated. \u201cIt is up to the viewer to decide if they want to participate in his visceral connection to glass and its expressive qualities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although hesitant to offer an explanation of his own work, Rhodes\u2019 provided an artist\u2019s statement from a few years ago. In the statement, Rhodes\u2019 described his desire to explore the \u201cqualitative vs. quantitative aspects of experience.\u201d As a result of his attempts to \u201cconvert or distill complex and layered sensory or sensual experience into simple information,\u201d Rhodes leaned towards \u201cgraphic simplicity and sybaritic minimalism.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the statement is still true somewhat today, Rhodes stated his most recent body of work explores \u201capproaches that normally offend [his] sensibilities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaking about his current work in the Aegon Gallery, Rhodes explained, \u201cwith the exception of [the piece entitled] \u201csic,\u201d all of these works are actually sketches or prototypes of pieces I\u2019m still developing.\u201d \u201cSic\u201d is one of Rhodes\u2019 favorite pieces in the gallery. His other favorites include \u201cthe untitled tank of water, and [maybe] output \u2013 because they have, had, or will have a persisting conceptual element.\u201d<\/p>\n

Instrumental to exhibiting Rhodes\u2019 favorite pieces and the rest of his works is the lighting, an element many may overlook; however, not Stephen Powell, who oversaw the lighting of the gallery. \u201cI am a fanatic about lighting!\u201d expressed Powell. \u201cThe relationship between light and glass is what makes glass so special. You can transmit light through glass, reflect light off glass, and everything in between.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not only does lighting affect the glass itself, but also the visitor\u2019s experience with the work. \u201cIf you don\u2019t have light, you don\u2019t see anything. Light controls the emotive value of color, something that effects our enjoyment of life, whether we are aware of it or not,\u201d Powell voiced.<\/p>\n

He hopes visitors to the gallery will \u201chave a better understanding of creativity and its many approaches to expression.\u201d Jia seems to agree with Powell, describing her own experience with Rhodes\u2019 work in dichotomous terms, \u201cIt\u2019s exciting to see blown and cast glass used along with metal in a sculptural way that is at times playful and at others ominous.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rhodes himself declined \u201cchanneling the experience of the viewer for now.\u201d Rhodes\u2019 enigmatic words leave a survey of his work to the choice of those individuals who enter JVAC.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BY KIT HAIST – STAFF WRITER A Centre student who enters the Jones Visual Arts Center \u2013 or JVAC \u2013 is probably either pursuing an art degree, taking an elective, or attending the odd humanities class taught in the building. As a result, most of Centre\u2019s population may remain unaware of the art JVAC hosts […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":3905,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3904","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3904"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3904\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}