Creative syndromes

This October at the Center for the Arts, students can experience "Stockholm Syndrome" without ever being diagnosed.

Stockholm Syndrome is a psychological response that arises in a person after they have been through a traumatic event, such as rape. The victim identifies with the criminal and shows signs of loyalty and understanding.

The Center for the Arts Department of Visual Studies opened an art gallery of the same name on Oct. 4, 2007. Located in the basement of the CFA, in a moderately sized room, the walls are pure white, with the pictures, images or paintings on top of them.

The first picture on the right side of the wall is large and bright called "Thickening Thicket." It was created with oil on canvas; an abstract image with the colors orange, yellow, red, purple and pink blended or layered together. The words Popsicle, Orange, Cherry and Grape are painted with a brush on the top and middle of the painting.

"I think this picture is really cool and interesting; it caught my eye the second I walked in the door," said Allison Fein, a senior speech pathology major.

On the far end of the same wall, three small-framed pictures are mounted. Inside of the framed pictures is another smaller framed picture of medical instruments. The three all look very similar, with a small difference in each.

On top of the inner-framed picture is a thermometer that lies vertically, while on the back wall, eight oddly arranged images can be seen. Each is in a thick gold frame, which allows them all to flow nicely together. Inside each frame is an odd collage that differs in each picture.

The heads of women, men, animals and creatures are cut out and attached to the bodies of warrior or superhero bodies. The background of each picture is very different also, ranging from the sky to the desert. Some of the bodies have the heads of a bird or a horse, the body of human, and the large beautiful wings of a butterfly. The symbolic effect of this set of pictures is a little confusing.

Next, three thin canvas-like sheets of paper unframed, lay in a row. These are all very unlike the rest. Scribbles of words and letters of the alphabet are all over the paper, showcasing different penmanship.

A particularly interesting wall of the gallery entitled "The Amazing Living Stem Cell" bears packages hung upon it. June Pickford (JP) Toys is attempting to use toys to help increase the knowledge of stem cell research, both politically and medically.

Each of the packages, which resemble the aforementioned toys, is equipped with a Petri dish, syringe, vial, magnifying glass, two pipettes and three developmental packages. The developmental packages consist of agar feeder, zygotes and growth nutrients.

In a back nook of the gallery is a video shown through a projector. A woman named Stella Mars sings in what looked like a home-made digital film. While she sings, a man strums on a guitar. Her song, "Questions for 3 Rock Stars," is interesting yet hard to understand because of the extremely abstract lyrics.

The final wall has five black-framed drawings with a black background, called

In the center of the room is a large black wooden table. On it are four small hardcover books, each an equal distance apart. The books have a hole cut in the center on the cover with a clear glass over it. Inside of the hole are small objects that pertain to the subject of each book.

The "Stockholm Syndrome" gallery is interesting to look at and observe, yet confusing when considering the title's relevance to the gallery.

And while none of the pictures seem to flow together to create a story, or even have similar meanings to one another, the artistic and creative ability of the artists are amazing and the talent, time and effort was put into each image should not go unseen.