Exhibitions of student work often premiere in quiet galleries and campus venues. But earlier this spring, 40 VCUarts students had a chance to present their work on a 65-foot screen, with attendees gathered for a viewing party in a stadium press box.
On March 24, nearly 100 students and faculty met at Richmond’s City Stadium for Behold the Magnificent, a show featuring the top student-produced videos and animations from the Department of Kinetic Imaging.
“As a sophomore, seeing my animation on the big stadium screen alongside the work of talented upperclassmen felt surreal,” says Anaïs Wojtysiak, whose paper cut-out animation, Hightail, was shown at the screening. She describes the animation as a whimsical and light-hearted story about rabbits and their adventures in a wooded world where magical events might take one by surprise.
“The reception was better than I imagined. I didn’t expect to have fans of Hightail when I was animating it for eight hours straight in a basement for my final animation project.”
The stadium show came about organically after Kate Sicchio, associate professor of Kinetic Imaging, attended a Richmond Kickers soccer match at the stadium. When the game ended, she couldn’t stop thinking that the stadium’s new screen would be perfect for showing student work.
“Camp Peery, the Kickers president and CEO, was totally welcoming to the idea and let us have an evening when there wasn’t a game scheduled,” Sicchio says. “They were so accommodating to us and really made it a great experience for our students.”
The event was the largest public screening of student work. Buses transported students to and from the event, where they enjoyed a viewing party in the press box. The 90-minute program featured the work of 40 students, selected from approximately 120 submissions by a jury of four faculty members and one alumnus.
“There were wry and poetic animations, thoughtful political videos and a boatload of funny, inventive works that carried an infectious energy with them,” says Bob Paris, associate professor of Kinetic Imaging, who organizes the show each year. “And of course many of the selections boasted strong soundtracks—a longtime tradition for Kinetic Imaging artworks.”
The collaborative piece White Sun by Layan Aljambi, Kenna Crispin and Ethan Drake was awarded Best in Show. The lyrical and mysterious black-and-white video of one figure pursuing another in the woods.
Senior Kinetic Imaging major Mais Aljambi’s 3D animation Systematic also appeared in the show. She describes the work as showing the process of forming thoughts and making decisions—some of which lead to inevitable consequences.
“It was a great experience,” she says. “Opportunities like this help encourage the students to create even greater work.”
Stephen Vitiello, chair of the department, adds that any time students can take their work out of the classroom and into a new context is a chance to learn and consider their work in a new light.
“The stadium was unusual,” he says. “It’s outside. The scale is massive. The sound bounces a bit around the stadium in a kind of theatrical drama. It’s more than just projecting a bigger image. It’s showing new possibilities for screening art outside of a classroom or traditional space and finding new inspiration.”
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