2008 Woodie Awards
Dual thesis exhibits challenge viewers
Niketa Reed
Issue date: 4/23/08 Section: Life & Style
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Masters of Fine Arts candidates Jason Barnes, who created "Foreshadows of Forefathers" and Shane Richey, who pieced together "Television Will Save Us All," will share exhibit space in the fine arts gallery until May 1.
In regard to the chosen subject, Richey described his work as "sarcasm meets sensationalism."
His exhibit features an installation of televisions as part video installation and part sculpture, he said.
"The video will be news feeds from various major news networks and the sculpture part is all steel, plastic, wood, copper, and more than just a little blood and sweat," Richey said.
"For years, I have been creating work that centers on the idea that objective communication is possible in theory alone," he said. "This goes for all levels of communication, from interpersonal conversation all the way up to mass media. Any transfer of information is affected and skewed by the person sending or receiving that information. This is not to say that everybody that you might talk to has an ulterior motive, but that there is no perfect way to transfer ideas.
"Media bias is not an unknown idea, but I don't think that most people fully understand the degree to which agenda or opinion sneaks into all major news networks," Richey said. "NPR is just as guilty of bias as Fox News - the only difference is that more people agree with the direction that NPR tends to lean, so it seems less pronounced, but it's still very much there.
?"I sometimes feel like a disaster capitalist when I'm working on a new idea since the worse the issue that I am addressing is, the stronger my work is going to be," Richey said. "Major events [and] tragedies always bring new ideas - not necessarily as a direct result, but from our society's reaction to an event.
"I'm consistently baffled at our country's obsession with celebrities," he said.
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