Studio Art students trade gallery white for construction site
Painting in broad strokes. Sadie Beattie, a third-year Studio Art major, joined more than 20 other students on Wednesday to begin work on a public mural around the L.R. Wilson Hall construction site. The project will wrap-up next month.
In the life of a public street artist, anonymity is sacred — often crucial.
For students in assistant professor Carmela Laganse’s painting and drawing class, the opposite is true. Exposing the bright and bold visionaries of the Studio Art program is at the heart of a new campus project.
On Wednesday, more than 20 aspiring painters in Laganse’s class began transforming the hoarding around the future L.R. Wilson Hall into a vibrant public mural. The ambitious project is expected to wrap up by mid-November, and will include imagery and themes related to learning, growth, community and Hamilton’s working-class history.
Laganse, who began teaching at McMaster this fall, said she drew inspiration for the project from thriving street art movements in Hong Kong, Beijing and several European cities.
“I gave a lecture on street art earlier this semester, including the motivations behind why it exists,” she explained. “Public art is very temporal. You never know just how long it’s going to last, and that’s part of the appeal. It’s very grassroots and community-based, and it always engages people.”
Students will be using stencils, latex paint and wheat pastings to bring their work to life on the hoarding around Wilson Hall — a process that will take three or four weeks to complete. The source material was pulled from earlier works created by students, which were then chopped-up and reassembled into one giant piece “like LEGO,” explained Laganse.
The mural’s preliminary drawings were laid out on the sidewalk in front of Wilson Hall Wednesday morning, as students applied base coats of paint with large rollers under the direction of Laganse.
Sadie Beattie, a third-year Studio Art student, says the project is a great way to showcase student work while also breaking out of a more traditional gallery setting.
“This is my first time working on a mural like this,” said Beattie, who was outlining her preliminary sketches on the hoarding alongside two other students. “When an opportunity like this comes along, we all get really excited. We all like to take part in events like Art Crawl, and this is another great chance to get our work out there.”
The idea was originally pitched by McMaster professor Virgina Aksan, and received support from Ken Cruikshank, acting dean, Faculty of Humanities. As a new lecturer at the University, Laganse jumped at the opportunity to get involved. Several students from assistant professor Brianna Palmer’s printmaking class will also be involved in implementing the mural.
“This public art project is a fantastic way to showcase our many talented students in the Studio Art program, and to help introduce their work to the broader community,” said Cruikshank. “I’m excited to see the piece come to life in the weeks ahead, as construction continues on L.R. Wilson Hall.”
“I think this project represents everything Wilson Hall is going to be about,” added Laganse. “It’s community-driven, collaborative and innovative.”
Construction of L.R. Wilson Hall, McMaster’s future home for the faculties of Humanities and Social Sciences, began earlier this month. Once opened in September, 2015, it will feature a variety of teaching and learning spaces, including a 400-seat lecture theatre, a 350-seat concert hall, two-100 seat classrooms and a number of other resources.
The building will also house significant liberal arts research centres such as the Wilson Institute for Canadian History and the Gilbrea Centre for Health and Aging. McMaster’s Indigenous Studies program and indigenous student support offices will also be located there.
