Chantal Barlow, Contributing Writer
Art & design majors at Asbury spend most of their four years looking foward to and preparing for their senior show. Taryn Cipkowski was no exception. The week before her show, “dandelion roots,” officially launched on March 11, she set it up in the space that she was given — Kinlaw Library’s movable gallery walls. Her original setup lined the three walls in a row, open and with her artwork facing the library doors.
The following week, Cipkowski’s show setup had been altered. The movable walls had been turned to face each other and, with an additional wall added, formed a square layout with a small entrance, the photographs now inside.
Jared Porter, director of library services, explained that he contacted Keith Barker, photography professor and art & design department chair, with his concerns. “I thought the mature content of the images in the context of the artist’s description would be something that would be lost on people that just walked in,” said Porter.
Cipkowski’s show features photographs of different angles of women’s bodies, from the waist up, with their faces mostly or entirely out of frame. However, there is no explicit nudity. In between the photographs are poems that Cipkowski wrote and designs she created.
One of these poems reads, “i’m going to shout / from the mountains / the stories you / wrote on my skin.” According to Cipkowski, her show “is both a celebration of feminine vulnerability and challenge to protect it.” Her artist statement explained that the purpose of her show was to explore and shed light on the issue of sexual assault.
The biggest concern for the library staff was that children and other visitors walk through the library daily and, if they don’t read the artist statement, may view the display as something more sexual and offensive than intended.
According to Barker, Cipkowski and the art & design department were involved with the decision to move the walls into the new arrangement; nothing was done without the artist’s knowledge nor was anything taken down.
The art & design department’s hope is that our campus community prioritizes art. “I think it’s good for our spiritual health,” said Barker. “Having art shows is a part of that. If we have art work rotating through our offices and through our spaces, that says something about us visually to anyone who comes onto our campus.”
Cipkowski said that her intention with her senior show was to make people think. “I wanted to spark a conversation,” she explained. “If art does not — in the least — make you think, then it cannot be called art. ‘dandelion roots’ has soul, a human aspect; that is why I think it makes people uncomfortable.”
The exhibit “dandelion roots” has been on display since March 11 and experienced its final week as of April 5.
