Tackling political and existential themes through a variety of mediums and styles, the Confluence exhibit at TR Campus’ East Fork Gallery showcases faculty-produced artwork.
“What I really love about the faculty show is it’s such diverse art,” said East Fork Gallery supervisor Andrew Giles. “We have this crazy installation from professor Fernandez.”
TR art professor Angel Fernandez’s “Sentry” stands tall in the middle of the room. It looks similar to a totem pole and is made out of repurposed materials like exercise balls, discarded tires and wood from an old easel.
“I have environmental concerns, so I’m thinking about sustainability,” Fernandez said.
The piece was inspired by his concerns about what is taking place at the U.S.-Mexico border.
“It’s there as a beacon of sorts to ward off evil powers, evil spirits,” he said.
The first thing people see walking into the gallery is a screen showing a video piece created by Fernandez and his wife called “Raised Sails on the Esperanza.”
It was filmed in the Big Bend area using a drone. The overhead shot shows Fernandez drawing on the desert ground with a shovel around paintings done by his wife. He said the piece contrasts the difference in scale between a human being and a sublime environment like the desert, reminding viewers of their own mortality.
“Both of my parents died of cancer younger than they should have, so the ephemeral quality of us, of life, of existence, is always in the forefront,” Fernandez said.
He said it isn’t just the scale of the frame representing these ideas. The drawings he’s making on the ground will also succumb to forces of time and nature like wind and rain.
“You’re at the mercy of nature and that feeling of being insignificant and small,” Fernandez said.
The theme of mortality was also present in other pieces in the exhibit. Fellow TR art professor Janae Corrado’s painting “The Light We Leave Behind” depicts an animal skull with flowers laid around it. She said the painting is an homage to her family’s dog that passed away, but she wanted to leave it open-ended enough for people to relate to it in their own ways.
“All of us touch somebody in the time that we’re here, whether you believe that or not,” she said.
TR art instructor Dagon Blank’s painting “Arcadia (Under Construction)” shows a satyr, a mythological being of debauchery, in a modern setting. The satyr sits on a rock in the foreground, with its hammer crushing a plant. The midground features a tree with a plastic bag caught in its branches. In the background is a network of unfinished freeways and road construction.
“The main idea here is bringing mythological or religious symbols and putting them in our more secular society, kind of removed from religion, and see how people interpret those symbols,” Blank said.
Giles’ piece “The Great American Summer Vacation” is a lighthearted chronological photo arrangement documenting his family’s road trip through Texas, New Mexico and Colorado. He blends modern digital photos with shots taken on old film that technically expired in 2006.
“To me, it almost became like a game,” Giles said. “Can you spot the film versus the digital?”
The Confluence reception was part of the Fort Worth Art Dealers Association’s Fall Gallery Night that highlighted over 40 local galleries on Sept. 19. It will remain open until Oct. 9.
