Joshua Anderson
palmettoreport@gmail.com

(Rock Hill, S.C.) — A new multimedia art exhibit was released in Winthrop University’s Rutledge Gallery, which was focused on emergent ecologies and featured the work of a number of different artists.

The group exhibition, which was on display from Aug. 28 to Oct. 5, featured “performance art, scientific research and non-profit advocacy for environmentally distressed communities,” according the gallery’s website.

Fine Arts Professor Claudia O’Steen, one of the featured artists, traveled overseas on a month-long residency in the arctic circle, where she worked with other artists while sailing around the arctic.

When O’Steen returned, she brought with her many pieces of art from her trip and created a new exhibit showcasing the works that were done during the residency, which were inspired by the trip.

“It was really incredible, it was a landscape that I had never experienced before, the sounds are different, the land just feels very vast, there are no trees and there are no people there, because it’s so remote, it’s very quiet,” she said. 

O’Steen said each of her pieces have a different inspiration. 

“All of my work is research based, so it changes depending on whatever landscape or environment I’m working in. Most of it is related to the landscape or the environment in some way, so looking at climate change, a lot of my work is connected to that,” she said. “I use whatever material makes sense for a particular project.”

Myles Branic, a senior art education major at Winthrop, said he enjoyed seeing the exhibit.

“Art to me is a way of telling your own story. Art can be in anything, but for me art is telling your own story and getting your information out there, no matter how you do it,” Branic said. “I just feel like it is a pure way of expression and storytelling.

 “I feel like the gallery is very nice, the mainline artist did his thing — super elaborate, super beautiful — all the artworks just make me want to sit down and look at it all day,” he said.