Body of Work

November 5, 2008
Flagpole Magazine
link to original article

Flagpole Art Notes
by Rebecca Brantley

Body of Work: Also located on the first floor of the art school is an installation by MFA candidate Brian Hitselberger in the ICE (Ideas for Creative Exploration) Studio that will be up through the fall semester. Drawn onto a transparent ground and fitted to the windows of the ICE Studio, Hitselberger’s black-and-white drawings can be seen from inside and out, looking dramatically different from the two vantage points. Somewhat difficult to see behind the glare of sunlight on glass from outside, the shapes appear stark and geometric; from inside every individual hatch mark can be distinguished. The bottom register of drawings consists of two silhouetted profiles facing away from each other two different directions. Above these drawings are two drawings of groups of figures – three men that appear to be walking or moving – and the upper register shows long arms that have been cropped so as to be detached from an individual body as they reach into piles of twigs and branches. The two images of dissociated heads at the bottom of the installation suggest solitude, while the second tier of drawings shows figures in groups of three, though they still appear to be separate and clone-like entities. The top two drawings show fragmented arms and heads detached from individual bodies and reaching into masses of organic debris as if to suggest a fusion of individual elements into a single mass. Finally, there seems to be a move from images of the body and physical sensation at the top to thought and cerebral isolation at the bottom, perhaps reversing stereotypical hierarchies that place thought and logic above the body and sensation.