Art provokes thought on man vs. nature

By Patrick Flajole

"Natural Blunders," is an exhibit that encourages visitors to question and explore their own personal relationship with and definition of nature.

The exhibit, opens this Saturday in the de Saisset Museum, showcases the work of 17 artists and achieves cohesion through the exploration of distortions of nature, primarily by human society.

Upon entering the museum, it is actually the discordance of the various mediums that is the most striking -- be it moss, bonsai trees growing directly out of cement, canine hair, tapestries, taxidermy, cicada exoskeletons, egg tempera paint or simply digital photography.

Even the pieces that seem the most simplistic encourage active engagement so viewers can find their own meanings.

Facing the entrance are two colorful paintings of insects rendered in an egg tempera paint.

The seemingly scientific depictions transform into cyborg-insects with electronic body parts as you approach them.

Artist Paul Paiement hopes to incite curiosity in viewers and inspire them to look deeper into the nature around them.

"I love that ambiguity of not knowing exactly what they look like and to have the ability to put objects into those insects, still presenting them in an objective way," Paiement said.

Included with the 17 artists displayed in the exhibit are Santa Clara professor of art Susan Felter and de Saisset preparator Ernest Jolly.

Felter uses digital photography to create images of plants and animals that appear real, but could never exist in the natural world. "With Photoshop, a photographer can behave a bit more like a painter, to combine photographic elements into a fictionalized but realistic looking scene," she said.

Jolly, on the other hand, has been working all this week on his engrossing installation piece that looks at the all-too-real depiction of the urban environment.

He anticipates completing it sometime on Saturday before the opening, and he describes the piece as a representation of "being in an urban environment, where sometimes the only part of nature we see is the sun coming between the buildings." He calls the piece "Vertical Horizons."

"The title of the exhibit explains it all," said Brianna Lewke, senior and co-head of the student-led docent class. "Each piece can be taken as a commentary on our role in nature. Our culture in many cases completely disregards nature, and our man-made culture takes precedent over nature."

The Assistant Director of Exhibitions, Karen Kienzle, is also hopeful that this exhibit will appeal to a larger crowd. "It's an opportunity to look at art work in a new context," she said.

The exhibit runs through March 20.

Contact Patrick Flajole at (408) 551-1918 or pflajole@scu.edu.