'Vision Days' aim to integrate art and life

Through public sculpture, performance art and literature, the Artist Guild will present "Vision Days" this week, in an attempt to focus on a specific question the group has developed. "If a new light should change ancient notions or infuse new meanings to things surrounding us, how should we respond?" the organization's pamphlets ask. "Vision Days," this year's Artist Guild spring presentation, will include a variety of events geared toward bringing art to the University community. "Vision Days" will culminate in a "Vision Tunnel" exhibition, which will be held Thursday in the Houston Hall Bowl Room. "We want to emphasize the importance of artwork to people," explained College senior Bryanna Millis, outgoing Guild vice president. "We're trying to involve the community and to make this a collaborative event." "Vision Days" will kick off today with "The Walk" -- a public collaborative sculpture. Organized by College senior Laura Amrofell and College freshman Josh Glazer, the sculpture will allow participants to walk over hardening plaster and make imprints at 36th Street and Locust Walk. The footprints will be painted, and "The Walk" will be displayed at "Vision Tunnel." "People will feel like they're a part of the artwork," Amrofell said. "We don't want to make art alienating. Instead, we are incorporating anyone." The Guild will hold a public poetry reading on Wednesday, organized by College sophomore Karina Sliwinski and co-sponsored by the Philomathean Society. "Vision Days" will end Thursday with two presentations. Throughout the day, interested individuals may participate in "Democracy Wall" by writing anything on a paper-covered wall. A collaborative event called "Who Am I?" will investigate the capacity of the five senses. "All of these events during 'Vision Days' allow people to participate openly in the creation of artwork," said College junior and incoming Guild Vice President Javier Villar. "The University is a bit dull --there's no intellectual exchange," Villar added. "We want to show that art is a fundamental part of life and that it is very subjective." Organized by the Guild's outgoing and incoming boards, the "Vision Tunnel" exhibition will feature more than 20 works, including "The Walk" and a female body art project. For the project, several female undergraduates dipped themselves in paint and threw themselves on canvases. The work will include not only the completed canvases but also photographs and sound bites of the process. "Process is a big part of 'Vision Tunnel'," Villar said. "All exhibitors must explain how their product relates to the process." "Vision Tunnel" will not be relegated to the works themselves. The layout of the Bowl Room will be based on the artwork in an attempt to make everything works of art in themselves, he explained. Villar said he hopes "Vision Days" will dispel the perception of some students that the Guild has been too selective in choosing what works will be exhibited.

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