What's the Rush exhibition

This is a long overdue blog post.

What's the Rush? Topics on Convenience, a recent exhibition at the Cal State Fullerton Main Art Gallery, featured artists Susan Jane Belton, Derek Buckner, Chris Jordan, Kevin Landers, Henriette Sonne, Maya Sutter, and Chris Wright. Uniting the pieces on display November through December 2009 was the visual commentary they portrayed of life in our fast-paced world. Depictions, paintings, photographs, and sculptures ranging from the things we carry in our pockets, to sculptures of bagged snack chips, to the scrutinizing details of a portrait depicting the two million plastic beverage bottles used in the United States every five minutes confronted viewers with the realities about our culture of excess.

What's the Rush provided a forum for discussions about the current state of today's convenience-focused society and want-it-now attitudes. The exhibition was as much about design as it was about the artist's individual expression. Each piece could be interpreted as a commentary on the design of the things we use and come in contact with daily. Cell phones, designed for the convenience of communicating on the go, are redesigned every year to hold the latest technology and sell more units. Coffee cups are branded by their respective conglomerate corporate chains to keep consumers loyal. Processed potato chips are dressed up in fancy, sliver lining and the brightest colors to appease your appetite. What's the point? The design of all these things influences the consumer habits we see today.

The exhibition was able to provide a snap shot of our current consumer culture. The artists' work on display started discussions about the need to consider the implications of our fast-paced society and its effect on our environment and our bodies.

*Update* Beautiful catalog photographs from contributing catalog designer, Johan Vilchez


What's the Rush? Topics on Convenience
Curated by Elizabeth C. Tallman and Krystal Glasman

November 7, 2009 through December 16, 2009
CSUF Main Art Gallery

Pollution by Brian Snelson

Pollution, an exhibition by Cal State Fullerton Ceramics major Brian Snelson, opened tonight in the CSUF West Gallery. Walls covered in plastic, signifying the pollution produced from life in an industrialized society, created an eerie feeling of suffocation within the space. This played well on Snelson's themes of convenience, environmental pollution, and pollution in the human body. A number of clay sculptures resembling human organs and products of industry, like automotive parts, occupy the gallery. Some are sloshed with a thick, debilitating glaze, while others are littered with corrosive rust that will continue to erode the pieces well past the moment Snelson's hands last formed the sculptures. Pollution provides audiences an abstract perspective on the current state of our environments. Snelson's exhibition reinforces the reality that we live in a increasingly volatile environmental crisis. A crisis that not only effects our physical surroundings, but also our physical condition.

In what ways have you felt the effects of environmental pollution in, or on your body?




Cal State Fullerton Art Department
800 N. State College Blvd.
Fullerton, CA 92834

West Gallery
Room VA198

Earth

Seven experts sharing their contemporary ideas of cohabitation on Planet Earth. What will all of them need when they are ready to bring their ideas to fruition?

They will need functional design to communicate their ideas and processes to the public at large.

That's where I come in. Visual communicator for essential ideas and philosophies of the new century.

Information is beautiful.

Sputnik Observatory for the Study of Contemporary People

Dyson Airblade

Sleek industrial design for the Dyson Airblade. Dries your hands in 12 seconds or less with a thin, powerful blade of warm air.

It's the fastest hand dryer – and it's hygenic too, cleaning the air before blowing it onto hands. And because it uses up to 80% less energy than warm air hand dryers, it costs less to run and is better for the environment.

The only hand drier that literally scrapes water from your hands.