Forster Art Complex, Dennis Gallery: October 13 - December 5, 2025

Jessie Box

Cameron McIver
Apple

Ashley Avila
Red Apple of Joy

Assignment Name/ Artwork Title -
PICNIC!?!
Subtractive Sculpture, Installation, Collaboration, and Surrealism.

The Etymology of the word picnic stems from the french phrase
Pique Nique - To pick a small thing.
In French, "picnic" translates to pique-nique (noun) or pique-niquer (verb), meaning a social gathering where food is shared, or to have such a meal outdoors. The word originated from the French piquenique, a fashionable social event where each participant contributed to a common table.
In the spirit of collaboration, a potluck, and surrealism… the sculpture students were asked to subvert the idea of a PICNIC!
Subversion is the undermining of power and authority of an established system or institution, for our sakes, the institution we are subverting is REALITY!
The sculpture students collaborated together to create an INSTALLATION made out of INSULATION FOAM. In the spirit of a potluck, each student is responsible for bringing a dish!
Students were tasked with not only recreating their food, on a larger scale, but they were asked to slightly alter the food in such a way that it becomes, Surreal, DADA, or Kitsch.

For this particular assignment students were taught subtractive and additive sculpture methods, using insulation foam. Students measured and cut out their shapes, gluing them together to create a larger mass, which they then carved and shaped down to a more articulated and representational form. This project asked the students to analyze their desired form, and break it down into layers, as the insulation foam comes in large fl at sheets. Students had to plan out their design in order to not over use their limited materials.

This style of sculpting is a really pragmatic and functional way to create and is commercially very common. The skills students acquired in this project are very useful. Many large department stores employ sculptors to work with materials such as these to create window displays and temporary store fi xtures. As a class we discussed pragmatic sculptural careers, and explored the concept of installation art spaces, such as MEOW WOLF. As well, insulation foam is a great foundation for environmental sculpture like in theme parks, movie/theater set design, and cosplay prop construction.

Artists, credited in the installation.
Yakari Brown, Madison Davis, Margot Evelyn, Sophia Fitch, Nancy Flores, Jordan Johnston, Mikayla Perkins, Alexis Phifer, Brooke Poarch, Norah Robinson, Chris Salyer, J Sawyer, Chloe Taylor, Kellen Vickery