Artist: Cassandra Aguilera
Exhibition: Group Exhibition
Media: Metal and Jewelry
Gallery: LBSU School of Art, Gatov Gallery West
Cassandra is an undergrad student currently, in the studio art program at CSULB. She is very joyful and seems like nothing in the world could get in the way. As I began interviewing her the first question I asked her was “What ideas does their work explore?” she said, “A lot of my stuff is conceptual, but I feel like most of the subject of my work surrounds mental illness, when you look at it you’re just like, “oh it’s this” or “oh it’s that” but usually, I have a deeper meaning to it in which you wouldn’t be able to know what it is by just looking at it. If i were to explain it to you, it would make a lot more sense.” Which is true as I was looking at her piece of art, the more she explained it, the easier it was to understand the story behind it. The next question I asked was “Your art does not look simple, what makes you go this far in creating your art?” her answer was, “My work represents what mood I am in at the time. I was feeling kind of broken while making this, that is why there are cracks being tied to show the process of being put back together. Events that go on around me influence what I make as well.” Her piece does seem complicated but the meaning behind it is a lot deep than what you expect. My last and final question I asked was “What do you physically do to be focused on working a single project?” her reply was, “If I want to work on my art, I will work on it. I’ll be working in the studio from 6-10 hours straight without distractions.” Cassandra is very determined in studying art, which shows the positive outcomes with her piece of art.
Cassandra’s Metal bowl is highly detailed and seems very difficult to even try doing what she had in mind at the time. Her piece looks very rough in texture with all the jagged curves and uneven patterns. The color is quite dark which catches your eye immediately as you begin inspecting on what this is. The very small details of the stitches and bandages give you a sense on what the backstory is behind her art.
Her piece of art shows a representation of being broken and putting yourself back together slowly and surely. As you look closer at the detail of the stitches on the bowl, it doesn’t show an even surface from the edges that it is bringing together. This shows how each wound you come across will not heal perfectly as you want it too, but it will definitely fix the separation correctly with time given to do so.
This exhibition overall was a great experience. Although I saw a lot more pieces that looked very interesting, I wish I could’ve talked to every artist about their piece. This exhibition shows how actual everyday life usage of materials we use can be created into extraordinary objects that have you in amazement.
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