Oberlin Blogs

Cranes, construction, and color theory.

November 21, 2010

Karl Orozco ’13

My favorite actual class this semester (Sorry PokéCo, but I can't claim that you're my favorite class without chuckling) is Color Theory. Now that I think about it, a class about color, color manipulation, and color interaction probably sounds almost as ludicrous as one about the Pokémon Trading Card Game. Speaking of Pokémon...


Semi-unrelated, wholly awesome.

Color Theory, as well as lots of other art-related projects, has been taking up an extensive amount of my time this semester. I figure I'll take the time to showcase one of my pieces for the class.

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Crane

Our first project for Color Theory was to create an artist book. Not necessarily an illustrated story or a portfolio of our own work, but a stand-alone artistic project or statement in the form of a book.

I hadn't really taken much time to sift through what Oberlin College's art library had to offer, but there are a ton of resources and collections at our disposal. In particular, the art library has a ton of such artist books.

One thing that began to interest me as early as spring semester of last year was the abundance of construction going on throughout Oberlin's campus. At that point in time, the new Kohl Building was nearly finished and the new freshman dorm Kahn was in its early stages of development. But aside from those two sites, there were plenty of other smaller areas of construction going on around the college and in downtown Oberlin.

This year is no different, as now the Allen Memorial Art Museum is currently being worked on and a new pond (or Living Machine extension? Still not sure on the specifics there) by the Environmental Studies building was recently completed. These construction sites are such large attractions due to the neon caution tape, orange fences, heaping mounds of dirt, and hulking machinery occupying the space. They are spectacles of loud noises and fluorescent colors but are not necessarily on display. They represent a plot of land in flux - a location progressing towards a goal - and are blocked off of any sort of outside interaction. I argue that these construction sites would preferably be hidden and tucked away before their final unveiling.

My piece, Crane, is a series of 8 prints on plexiglass attempting to repackage the components of a construction site into something clean and elegant. It is an attempt to capture an inhospitable location and present its contents as inviting. The plates are meant to be played with - one plate interacts with the next to create dozens of combinations.

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