Hiding in plain sight
At first glance, the Wheaton blue banners that line the paved path between Knapton Hall and Mars Arts and Humanities appear just like the dozens of others that dot the campus promoting values, such as creativity, community and leadership.
But look closer. The first banner pairs the word “integrity” with a puzzling plea: “Please help. I’m stuck in the school’s signage.”
The next one reads: “Awesomeness. Also guys don’t skip your classes.”
And then at the last, “Send help. Seriously, I skipped and now I’m trapped here.”
Confused? Amused? Emma Zhou ’27 hoped you would be. The double major in visual art and neuroscience created the banners for the public art course taught by Professor of Visual Art Kelly Goff.
The purpose of the course, Professor Goff said, is for students to “explore public art’s potential to change our sense of place, to intervene, to engage, and to foster dialogue while considering and interrogating historical notions of art in the public sphere.” The first assignment of the course was titled, The Hidden Work. The students could choose any space on campus for their work, with a few cautions, such as taking care not to damage college or personal property.
“The idea is to make art that’s in public view but camouflaged,” Zhou said. “So my thought was to come up with something that was literally hiding in plain sight. The banners occurred to me because I’m always fascinated by them wherever you find them, on campus or in a town. It’s something that we walk past every day. Once you’ve read a sign, you don’t look at it as much.”
The many students, faculty and staff who can be seen passing the banners without noticing them proves they are camouflaged. It’s a testament to the skill and time that she put into cutting muslin, designing the art and applying the artwork, sewing the banners and crafting brackets to hang them.
When the public art class took a walk to critique each other’s work, one classmate didn’t see Zhou’s project, although they had stopped in front of it. “When she saw it, there was a whole procession of emotions on her face. She said, ‘Wa, what? Wait, Oh my God, that’s so cool.’ It was really fun to see. That’s what I was looking for.”
Zhou enjoyed her fellow classmates’ work, too. Within view of her banners, for example, an attentive observer can see a giant orange face that Dylan Webb ’28 created, mosaic style, by inserting blocks into the screen wall in front of Watson Fine Arts. It’s only apparent to passersby who step back from the path.
“Another one that really tickled my fancy was Paige Heck ’28 made spigots, or faucets, out of foam and plaster and attached them to random objects, like a trash can or a campus pedestrian sign,” she said. “They looked very realistic, so you had to actually notice them to realize that they don’t belong there.”
The faucets are gone, as are some of the other works by the students, but Professor Goff said that they are already at work on a new project that will be hard to miss.
