RELEASED: Dec. 15, 2010

EAU CLAIRE — Art majors from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire recently displayed their final projects for a new sculpture course. Roy Staab, an environmental artist who visited campus in late September to work on an installation with students and faculty from the department of art & design, returned to campus to critique their work.

"Site-Specific Art," a new course taught by Jason Lanka, assistant professor of art & design, culminated in a final project in which students used all they learned about intervening at a site and creating a piece to convey their vision or statement in a public setting.

"Site-specific art is about learning to work with your space and problem solving. It's different from the gallery model of displaying artwork and I think it's important that students are exposed to this and can see that it can be a viable way to make a living," said Lanka.

When Staab led an installation on the Chippewa River at the university footbridge, the river was at a flood stage, necessitating some changes in order to work with nature.

"It was a great moment," Lanka said. "We get a lot of visiting artists, but with Roy the students had a relationship with him after working with him. Their final project was not just a critique but a dialogue among artists."

Staab said he was proudly surprised by the work of the students he met during his September visit and commended them for experimenting.

"In some cases it was their first presentation of their art to a person like me," Staab said, making special mention of senior Kim Vaughter, Stevens Point, for her initiative in the research of her paintings and senior Dan Olson, Bloomington, Minn., for his exploration of carbon footprint in a series of ceramic cups.

"This was artwork out of the garret and before an audience, which is an important idea, because many of the works required participation. It was a good day; a thinking day."

Much of the work of senior Kyle Pherson, Cumberland, employs pixelation in 3D. His final project attempted to create a "visual dialogue" between a portrait on the wall and a sculpture in a display case that represented the objectification and hypersexuality of female figures in contemporary media.

"Through the use of found objects and imagery within the piece I am attempting to raise awareness and inform the viewer as to the methods the video game industry employs in order to represent so-called 'female ideality,'" Pherson said.

Senior Ivan Ventzke, Merrill, chose left-handedness as his project theme, hoping that participants would experience what left-handed people go through while living in a world dominated by right-handedness.

"I have definitely developed as an artist because of this course," Ventzke said. "Site specific art allows the artist to take art to the viewer, making its placement just as much a part of the work as the object or objects. This is exciting because it opens up so many opportunities for the artist to voice their ideas or opinions."

Site-specific art has come to the forefront over the past 30 years, in part due to corporations commissioning work as an investment or a public service, or an artist wanting to make a statement or assist with a specific cultural group. It has its roots in the creation of monuments, which commemorate specific sites tied to events or people, and often elicit an emotional response from visitors.

"But where the monument tends to control and alter the site, site-specific art is a more focused integration with site," said Lanka. "The tendency in site-specific art is to create a piece that is impermanent."

According to Lanka, the form does not identify with a particular medium, but instead utilizes the artist's creativity to communicate with the general public in the natural world. Much of Lanka's work is in the category of site-specific artwork and may be viewed on his website. The course is offered every third semester.

For more information, contact Jason Lanka, assistant professor of art & design, at lankaja@uwec.edu.

Site-specific artwork exhibit to open Nov. 17 with panel discussion

Use the player below to listen to an interview about the exhibition with Al Ross featured on "Spectrum West" on November 19th, 2010

RELEASED: Nov. 11, 2010

EAU CLAIRE — Site-specific artwork designed by six University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire art students will be on display in UW-Eau Claire's McIntyre Library from Nov. 17-30. "Culture as 'site,'" an exhibition and panel discussion of site-specific artwork, will take place from 2-3:30 p.m. Nov. 17 in the second floor breezeway of the library.

Seniors Ivan Venttzke, Wausau, True Lor, Eau Claire, Kyle Pherson, Cumberland, Dan Olson, Bloomington, Minn., and Laura Kelleher, Brookline, Mass., will be on hand to discuss the sculptures they created this semester in "Sculpture II: Site-Specific Art," a new class that will be offered every third semester through the art & design department. Senior Cory Ploessl, Deerfield, will also display his work. Ploessl was not in the course but worked with Jason Lanka, assistant professor of art & design, through a faculty-student research grant. Lanka and McIntyre Library staff will host the panel discussion.

The course is an exploration of the history, context and creation of site-specific art. According to Lanka, site-specific artwork is created "to exist in a specific place, where artists try to integrate the context of site into the viewer's interpretation of content."

The students will discuss the inspiration for their artwork, the process of creation and the relationship of their pieces to the concept of site-specific art and sculpture.

This panel discussion coincides with the "Four Seasons/Four Corners" exhibit by artist Roy Staab, currently on display in the Foster Gallery of the Haas Fine Arts Center. Art students assisted Staab in the installation of "Eau Claire Currents," the site-specific environmental art piece currently hanging from the campus footbridge. Following their collaboration with Staab, students began creating their own pieces.

"McIntyre Library is thrilled to collaborate with art & design instructor Jason Lanka to give students a new forum for presenting their work. We think this a great chance for students to introduce their work and inspiration to the campus community," said library director John Pollitz. "I hope everyone who uses the library enjoys the change of scenery."

For more information, contact Jason Lanka, assistant professor of art & design, at lankaja@uwec.edu or Robin Miller, reference and instruction librarian, at millerob@uwec.edu.

Student 'shanty' art piece aims to create empathy for world's poor

UW-Eau Claire art student Cory Ploessl has created a performance art piece on the UW-Eau Claire campus. In his portrayal of a living situation similar to that of many people in developing countries, he'll live in a shanty he constructed for seven days, leaving only to attend classes and use indoor bathroom facilities. His daily work consists of hauling rocks from the nearby Chippewa River bank. (Photos by UW-Eau Claire student Lee Wegener)

RELEASED: Oct. 14, 2010

EAU CLAIRE — "Todos Somos Iguales. Todos Somos Diferentes."

Art student Cory Ploessl chose those Spanish words for "We Are All the Same. We Are All Different" as the title of a performance art piece he's created on the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire campus.

Ploessl's art piece includes a hand-assembled shanty he constructed from purchased lumber and scavenged materials. Since noon Oct. 11, he's been living in the shanty, his only furnishings a wooden bed he constructed himself and a hinged wooden chest to store his supplies. A well-worn rocking chair and a camp stove sit just outside his temporary home, which is located on a campus green space between the Chippewa River and the Haas Fine Arts Center. A hammock stretches from the frame of the shanty to a nearby tree, and a wheelbarrow, which Ploessl uses to perform his daily labor of hauling rocks from the nearby river bank, sits a short distance away.

Ploessl, a senior art major from Deerfield, will live in the shanty — leaving only to attend classes, use indoor bathroom facilities, fetch water or haul rocks — for a full seven days. His intent is to create a sense of empathy and understanding in himself and in his viewers toward the millions of people around the globe, most of them in developing countries, who live in similar conditions.

Ploessl will live on $2 a day for the duration of the project — a budget he says places him in the World Bank's "moderate poverty" category. His diet consists primarily of rice and beans, with some additional fresh fruits and vegetables. He bathes, using water from the river, in a shower he constructed on the southeast corner of the shanty. To attempt to replicate the experience of those among the world's moderately poor, he walks to the farthest possible point on campus to fetch drinking and cooking water from a faucet — although he points out his water-fetching time of 45 minutes per day is short compared to the five hours spent on the task by many around the world. His daily work of hauling rocks and using them to construct a series of low walls around his shanty is similar to the type of manual, tedious labor done by people living in developing countries.

His own time spent in developing Latin American countries inspired Ploessl to create the performance piece — the culmination of a student-faculty collaborative research project with his faculty mentor, Jason Lanka, assistant professor of art & design. Ploessl studied abroad in Costa Rica and Nicaragua for a semester in 2006, and he took time off from his studies for a semester in 2009 to travel throughout Latin America.

As part of his 2006 study-abroad experience, Ploessl participated in a service project to build a greenhouse for the residents of El Fortín, Nicaragua, a small, impoverished village.

"On the surface, I didn't think I could be any more different from the people of El Fortín, and that was terrifying," Ploessl said, recalling how intimidated he felt at one point, surrounded by a family in their one-room house, unable to communicate much with them because of his limited knowledge of the Spanish language.

But the people of El Fortín were gracious hosts during the students' eight-day stay in their village, and Ploessl said the experience taught him important things.

"I found out that everybody wants the same things in life," Ploessl said. "The things that bond us are so much more important than the things that separate us, and I really wanted to create a project about that."

The character Ploessl assumes in his UW-Eau Claire performance piece is not intended to represent a specific individual from a single place, and he wears a white jumpsuit to disassociate himself from any particular group, according to his blog that documents the project. Likewise, the shanty he's constructed "has reference" to those he saw in Latin American communities, but "the materials scavenged (and sometimes purchased) definitely have a north woods feel," Ploessl's blog states.

Lanka said much of Ploessl's preparation work for "Todos Somos Iguales. Todos Somos Diferentes" involved learning what it means for an artist to work in the public sphere. One concern is ensuring that the work is in accordance with all applicable rules and regulations, such as building and sanitary codes, Lanka said, noting that Ploessl worked with campus administrators to ensure all rules were followed. Another concern is being aware that creating one's work in a public setting is different from creating art to be displayed in a gallery, where people make a conscious choice to view artists' works, he said.

"It's being aware that viewers don't have a choice about viewing your work," Lanka said. "You need to integrate yourself into their everyday life, while creating a language that brings them out of their regular, day-to-day patterns and into your work."

A piece like Ploessl's also makes art accessible to more people, Lanka said, noting that only about 5 percent of Americans go to art galleries.

"You break down some stereotypes," Lanka said. "You're re-inviting the viewers, sending the message that art is for everyone."

Audience participation has been a rewarding part of the project, said Ploessl, who estimated at the start of his third day in the shanty that 50 people had stopped to view his work or to discuss it with him.

"If they see the shanty and think 'poverty,' that's something," Ploessl said. "But if they come up and talk to me, they'll learn so much more."

To his surprise, in reaction to his work, some viewers have asked if they can donate money to a specific cause, Ploessl said. While he had not intended the work to be a fundraising effort, he now suggests to those who inquire that donations can be made to LA-SED (which stands for Latin American Sustainability, Education and Development), a group formed by UW-Eau Claire students who worked together on the 2006 El Fortín greenhouse project. The group continues to raise funds for service projects in Latin American countries.

Ploessl's project was completed with support from UW-Eau Claire's Office of Research and Sponsored Programs. His blog documenting the project can be viewed at http://shantyhome2010.blogspot.com/.