The exhibit currently showing in the Shwayder Art Building’s, Victoria H. Myhren Gallery is titled “Negotiating Reality.”
The concept of the show is to exhibit the unique formations of topics such as the self, society and specific places. This show is special because the work has been carefully chosen by a student committee at DU.
Given an enormous collection to choose from by collectors Vicki and Kent Logan, the student group got an opportunity to select pieces that most represent the idea of “Negotiating Reality.”
Shown in the gallery are pieces ranging from abstract landscapes to fantasy depictions of mysticism and extremely realistic portraiture. The importance of a show like this on a college campus is to grasp the students in a different way than the typical art show.
Ordinary stigmas of art do not apply to this exhibition, as each work in the gallery holds a unique perspective on existence that may have never been consciously encountered before.
If students on campus would take the time to visit the gallery they might realize that the work is unusually creative, and an eclectic grouping of diverse outlooks on reality and non-reality.
A gallery planner said, “To negotiate reality is to assume it is not fixed.” This concept is an interesting choice for college-age individuals because it seems to juxtapose their ordinary lives with the bubble-like reality keeping students in the mindset of the university setting. Life in a university atmosphere is not exactly “reality” but it is supposed to prepare students for such a thing.
Whether your intention is to succeed unfailingly in each area of life or tread water until you find what you’re looking for, the existence of each passing moment will follow your footsteps.
Changing your idea of what is reality differentiates times past, the present and future occurrences in ways that question meaning and alteration for the future. The idea of negotiating this inescapable element of life seems to be an enticing idea, though a haunting one.
I have to wonder if students would negotiate their own realities in the way the gallery shows. I challenge you to slip into the Shwayder Art building to see this show, recognize your reactions and feel the difference of life when you start using the mindset of questioning the meaning of reality.
