Application For Grad School: MICA

Artist Lecture #7: Amy Hauft

Amy Hauft is the chair of the Department of Sculpture and Extended Media at VCU. She is currently showing an exhibit at the Anderson Gallery and gave a lecture yesterday, 12/2/09 about her recent project Counter Re-formation.

It was great being able to interact with the art pieces as Hauft was talking about them. The immense size of the table that Hauft had created for the main attraction, which was inspired by Louis XIV’s banquet table that obviously had Hauft’s personal twist, was overwhelming when viewed at ground level. The white, spiral staircase that was installed was so that you would be able to take in the aerial view so that you could view the pieces as a landscape, as intended. I thought that this was a great way of including the viewer in the art piece because it was a personal decision if you wanted to climb up the floor to ceiling staircase or not.

Although I found her work to be kind of interesting, as much as she spoke about the importance of the materials that are used in a project I was very disappointed with the ones Hauft chose for this project. The materials that were used were all bad for the environment and there was very little sugar used throughout the table, which I thought was important for the idea of the project.

http://www.vcu.edu/arts/gallery/