If you found yourself walking down Salem’s Essex Street pedestrian mall this past February, you might have noticed several students standing around, intently studying the streetscape.
Notepads and cameras out, they were looking at the architectural forms of the storefronts, noticing how the light moved throughout the day and how passers by interacted – or didn’t interact – with the shop windows.
These students — Kirsten Andersen, Jude Arnott, Jay Granniss, Shane Halleran, and Relena LaBoy — were doing research for an Interior/Exterior Installation Art class, taught by Associate Professor Elizabeth Alexander at the nearby Montserrat College of Art. The design challenge: to transform an empty storefront into an installation that would stop people in their tracks. Alexander challenged the class to create something that would invite neighbors and tourists passing by to think about their environment in a new way, both in downtown Salem and in the larger, ecologically interconnected world.
The project required close study and careful observation to fill a nontraditional space. Two deep, raised display windows recede into the surrounding building to frame the entrance of 181 Essex Street. This was one of two spaces along Essex Street offered to local college art programs for students to enliven the pedestrian mall and demonstrate their creativity.
For Montserrat students, it’s a vital opportunity to present their work in a public space. In previous iterations of Alexander’s class, her students have installed their final projects in college hallways and along regional nature trails. As Alexander explained, “This is significantly different. The students are aware of how many more people will access their work and the project has given rise to a truly collaborative process. It feels like a serendipitous moment.”
The student installations are visible from Essex Street. Photo by Thoman Rutigliano.
The group work, entitled Ebbing Flow, uses the two symmetrical window spaces to create a mirrored domestic scene. One side is stark and sterile, the other in a wild state of decay and water damage. As the students note in their artists’ statement, Salem is intricately connected to the sea and has relied on it commercially for generations.
The student installations are visible from Essex Street. Photo by Thoman Rutigliano.
“However, coastal states are vulnerable to natural disasters such as hurricanes, typhoons, tsunamis and flooding. This can cause significant damage to the infrastructure, economy and surrounding environment,” they write.
Extending the theme of ecological fragility, around 85% of the materials sourced for the project, from paint to furniture, were upcycled and gathered with an eye towards creative reuse.
Just down the way at 179 Essex Street, students from Salem State University’s Art + Design program have just installed another eye-catching project. Work In Progress depicts colorful anthropomorphic blobs perched in stacks, looking alert and curious and maybe a little startled. Overseen by Amy Kunberger, Assistant Professor of Graphic Design, the installation puts student work and voices front and center, giving observers access to the perspectives and output of young artists working today.
A concept rendering by Salem State University (SSU) students.
Kunberger credits two of her senior students, Ensley Bennett and Kaylee Sostre, for leading the project and coming up with the playful concept. As Kunberger explained, “the idea is that there is a big frog character that represents the university and there are these egg-like forms that represent the students waiting to hatch.”
A concept rendering by Salem State University (SSU) students.
But don’t be fooled — these baby frogs know what they’re doing. Just as the Montserrat installation plays with the concept of space, the Salem State installation frolics in the realm of time. During the opening reception for the class, a vintage pay phone, sourced by Kunberger on Etsy and retrofitted by Salem State theater production students, encouraged participants to listen to recordings of students talking about their art making experiences in their own words.
This feeling of nostalgia and toggling through eras is completely intentional, Kunberger explains. She’s finding her students are increasingly fascinated by the tension between digital and analog. In a world saturated by social media and a 24/7 bombardment of information, Kunberger sees a trend of students yearning for a simpler time. They want to integrate remnants of an analog world into their present day. “They want to develop film, design album covers and make things with their own hands. We talk about how digital programs like Photoshop are rooted in darkroom techniques and they want to know more about how tools like dodging and burning came to be.”
The Salem State installation snaps us back to the present day with QR codes that lead to a companion website with more of the students’ work. When I stopped by during the installation process in May, students were busy installing papier-mâché frog egg sculptures and collaboratively painting the mural of the friendly, wide-eyed creatures along the inside wall, preparing themselves and the project for a graduation debut.
SSU student artist Kaylee paints the floor of Work In Progress. Photo by Kathy Tarantola/PEM.
SSU student artists pose with their work. Photo by Kathy Tarantola/PEM.
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