Senior Alex Stewart’s art exhibition “Almost Alive” in the Eppink Art Gallery features ceramic, glass, and mixed media pieces, juxtaposing his fear of mortality with the things that make him forget that fear.
“Sometime in high school I stopped feeling connected to religion, and the concept of death stressed me out… Remembering the fact that it’s inevitable sent me into a spiral where it felt like it could happen any minute because I couldn’t stop it,” Stewart said.
One piece in the exhibition, titled “Almost”, is a dummy man’s torso and arms with a concrete block head and metal hands, one of which hangs from a handle on the ceiling. Originally the piece was meant to be a self portrait, with the concrete block head resembling his shyness and the metal hands representing his own hands that he describes as “always cold.”
Upon deciding to display it in “Almost Alive”, Stewart added blood and had it suspended from the ceiling, symbolizing himself hanging onto abstract concepts and far-fetched theories of immortality to quell his fear of death.
Another piece in the exhibition is a small glass monster called “Don’t Mind Him”, symbolizing the way that death follows everyone. Stewart had debated calling it “Snail’s Pace” in reference to the hypothetical scenario where a person is granted immortality and immense wealth, but in exchange, the person is constantly followed by an immortal snail assassin and will die if the snail touches them.
“Connections” is a ceramic piece that Stewart made with his current romantic partner, symbolizing how valuing his connections with other people makes him forget about death. The piece features two ceramic shapes stuck together. According to Stewart, if they come apart “it would be damaging to both of them”.
One piece that Stewart particularly enjoyed working on was the “Ancient Vase of Taboo”. The vase has Lego people on the outside and Lego pieces on the inside.
“As you grow older you’re obligated by society to give up what you liked as a kid… when I spent money on Legos people would judge me for ‘wasting money’ and eventually I started to realize that there’s no reason to stop doing what you want to do just because other people think it’s childish,” said Stewart.
Stewart describes his creative process as a “stream of consciousness” where he actualizes his ideas without prior planning.
“The art is more of a stream of consciousness reflection of myself at the time, so as it changes I change, too… A lot of earlier stuff is unrefined because I used to just focus on getting through it as I worked,” he said. “As I worked on later pieces, I started being more reflective as to what is my style versus what is a lack of attention to detail.”
