Interiorities pushes viewers out of their comfort zones
"Interiorities," a new installation by Houston artist and writer Besty Huete (Martel College '05), wiill open Sept. 26 at the student-created and student-managed Matchbox Gallery in Sewall Hall.
Huete, who is currently pursuing a master of fine arts in sculpture at the University of Houston, previously had a solo exhibition at Lawndale Art Center and participated in Houston's Fringe Festival. She said she hopes viewers will slow down and think about what something really means when looking at art.
"The point of art is to get people to ask questions," Huete said. "I want people to be a little uneasy [when they see 'Interiorities'], and I really hope they are. It's essential to push people's comfort zones a little and maybe even be a little confounding
at times."
Huete described her work as theatrical, silly and sinister and said she wants to use 'Interiorities' as a space to visually and literally translate the words of her poem into an environment. She said she also wants to call into question the essence and purpose of learning.
"Why do we learn?" Huete said. "Learning is a degenerative exercise when you add in time, memory and other cognitive processes. So what's the end product?"
According to Huete, installations are an intensive, nontraditional art environment that blurs the lines between art
and viewer.
"See my phone? If I put it on a stand, we can think of it like a sculpture or object that we could walk around and look at, but installation work is the opposite - it's really an immersive environment where you are using an entire space to address the viewer," Huete said. "Your goal is to get the viewer implicated in the space as opposed to being outside [of it]."
According to its website, the Matchbox Gallery was founded by Rice University students to highlight young artists in the Houston community and increase Rice student involvement in the arts. It is currently co-directed by Duncan College junior Lydia Smith and Duncan College senior Jessica Fuquay.
The installation's opening will take place at 8 p.m. Sept. 26 in Sewall Hall and will include free beer, hot dogs and live music by Quincy Banks and Kenny Evans. The event will be hosted by the Department of Visual and
Dramatic Arts.
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