Sculptor, photographer and educator Mary Carothers spoke of the progression of her artwork from when she was an undergraduate at Pratt Institute to her most recent projects and artwork.
The event occurred on Thursday, April 12 at 5 p.m. in Hull Auditorium. On Friday, April 13, Carothers hosted a workshop titled "Image Transfers to Change the World" in Bedford Hall at 10 a.m.
Introducing the event, Assistant Professor of Art History Erin Devine said, "She's an example for me as an artist who definitely has honed her own craft but extends beyond that and has done a lot with communitybased work, collaborative work."
Beginning her presentation in her undergraduate years, Carothers noted that she studied architecture at Virginia Tech for two years before dropping out to study photography at Pratt Institute. "When I was an undergrad, I started to be interested in moving my work outside, and I was looking at the time at more intimate spaces, sort of personal sanctuaries, if you will," Carothers said.
Carothers presented sculptured steel cage with hanging daguerreotypes, a Chevy Nova encapsulated and trapped by ice and snow and presented quirky road signs with aliens, owls and Colonel Sanders carefully placed by rural highways. While her work was dominated by sculptures, Carothers said, "I'm always making photographs. One thing that seems to pin me down is my interest in the photographic image."
Carothers' creation of fake road signs occurred at the end of her graduate studies at Rhode Island School of Design. She described the photography of these clashing road signs to a typical urban streetway as "a landscape parody."
During the process of her project, Carothers said, "The interactions I actually had with people became a video about contemporary culture, about some of the signs and symbols that we place meaning to, so I'd look for these sites once my signs had been designed."
Carothers said, "All these signs were open to interpretation." "Sometimes you can get in trouble when you say that in a critique, but for me they always had some kind of significance when I started," Carothers said.
Carothers added, "But what I really enjoyed were the conversations and the dialogue that happened when I met people when I was working with people literally on the road." Throughout her work, Carothers notes her interest in people and the community overall. "I was very interested in people. People are peculiar beings."
Educating children in an orphanage on photography, Carothers introduced and encouraged the arts through photography projects, such as one where students practiced light graffiti and one where the students dressed up as superheroes.
Through her work away from gallery spaces and immersed in the community, Carothers said her motivation was to "build trust and connections" with the children, while "honor[ing] their imagination."
After the completion of a community project where she caged a Chevy Nova in snow and ice, Carothers said, "The community will take over. Local publicity shows up. I don't love public speaking so much as I love working with the public. Rather than put myself in front of the camera, I'd rather put the community in front of the camera because it's as much their story as it is now."
Carothers spoke of another community project of hers where she decided to take a more covert stance, saying, "I decided I was going to stop in this little town, but I wasn't going to let them know I was here." Picking up old, discarded furniture,
Carothers placed and decorated them with stories, thereafter placing them around the town. "I decided to have a little bit of fun with them," she said.
"I try not to push my ideals on people, but I like to ... create dialogue and therefore, hopefully some kind of awareness. As an artist, I almost see myself as a mediator. I've positioned myself in the center and allow those who might prefer to throw beer cans at me and those who might think what I'm doing is really wonderful - bring them together and see what happens when some kind of language develops, and I think that is awareness without me saying, 'You really need to live like this.'"
Overall, art according to Carothers "is more about raising the questions, so we can think of possibilities."
Mary Carothers is an educator and artist of several different mediums.
