Art in the Real World

"When you are in art school, you are surrounded by people making art; there are people to talk to,” said LSU’s Glassell Gallery director K. Malia Krolak. “… Once you graduate, you are on your own. Choosing art as a career is a difficult path, so I want [art students] to find inspiration from those that do it.”

Every few years, Krolak presents an installment of the gallery’s Lineage series, in which LSU School of Art alumni are invited to show their work. “I invite them to come back ten or so years later so current students can see their work and talk about how they manage to make their art after art school.”

The current installment features two artists, Raina Benoit and Christopher Scott Brumfield.

Benoit’s show, titled The Seeker, features two video animations that explore the antiquated concept of five elements: air, earth, fire, water, and the void. “The video pieces represent the void, while some huge wall pieces represent air, earth, fire and water.”

Benoit’s work is an extension of line drawing, with flowers and leaves and seedpods seemingly growing out of the blankness of the wall, competing for space with dense clusters of industrial framework and billowing clouds of smoke. The effect recounts a “battle” between the natural world and the built world.

Brumfield’s exhibit, Something Borrowed Something Blue, saw its gestation interrupted and re-channeled when the artist was brutally attacked on the streets of New Orleans’ St. Roch neighborhood back in July. His attack became something of a symbol in the ongoing discussion about New Orleans crime; and Brumfield is still finding his way through the aftermath.

“The title comes from commitment and non-commitment,” said Brumfield. “Things being ripped asunder—and poking fun at the whole marriage thing.”

Brumfield’s exhibit involves a lot of his 2D work as well as the sculpture with which he is often most closely associated.

“That’s what I’m really excited about,” said Krolak. “I’ve seen him do all kinds of work, and I love his drawings and prints. It’s still Christopher all the way through. Christopher’s handwriting is artwork. He lives and breathes it.”

The work for this show changed as Brumfield’s view of the world changed. “I ended up doing some figurative work about the attack, as well as work about the headaches after the attack,” Brumfield explained.

Brumfield considers that the attack did not change his art so much as it changed his approach to art. “The last few rules I had about art-making are now gone. I used to think there were things you couldn’t do, places you weren’t allowed to go. I don’t believe that any more. I don’t really believe that for anything anymore.”

Regarding the work itself, Brumfield said, “It got more personal. It’s about being exposed—what happened on Facebook and having Fox News call me and people like that. It’s just really crazy.

“I felt very exposed and open, when all I wanted was the cops to listen to me; and they wouldn’t f*ing listen to me. I was being treated like nothing had happened. I’ll be making work about that for years—the inhumanity of being a victim.”

The opening reception for this installment of Lineage is Thursday, September 18 from 6 pm–8 pm at LSU’s Glassell Gallery in the Shaw Center (100 Lafayette Street). The show will remain up until October 19. design.lsu.edu/student-life/galleries/glassell-gallery.