Art History: Roger Colombik Absence, Presence Activity

Submitted By PedroL11
Words: 746
Pages: 3

Paper Assignment For my assignment in Art History, I visited one of Texas State Art galleries on campus. I went To the Roger Colombik Absence/Presence Exhibit on October 21, 2014. The exhibit was composed of a series of different types of sculptures. Many of the sculptures were made out of bronze and other metals, but there were some other sculptures that used other materials. The artist of the exhibit was Roger Colombik and the exhibit was put on display in the beginning of October. The exhibit was a series of different sculptures, scattered around the room. They ranged in sizes from a couple of feet in diameter, to ten to fifteen feet long. Most of the sculptures were made out of different metals. Most of the metals were painted in metallic colors such as gold, silver, and bronze. One of the main pieces of the exhibit was a long canoe made out of metal. The canoe was hanging from the ceiling about two feet off of the ground. Inside the canoe, on one side of it, was a blue tree that was standing up about three feet above the canoe. Another exhibit that was interesting to me was a series of different books that were sitting on a shelf. There were about twenty books made of metal and they all had something written on them. On some of the books, the word “presence” was written and on some of the books, “absence” was written. The books weren’t all neat and in order, the books were all open and there were even some that were laying on their sides. There were also some books that had some of the pages hanging off over the side of the shelf. On the back wall, there was a large scale. The scale was hanging from the ceiling and on each side, sitting on the plates, was a block. Finally, one of the first exhibits you see when you walk in the room, was a small blue bird on a mirror. The bird was laying stomach down against the mirror which was against the wall. The bird’s wings were spread out against the mirror. I believe that the meaning of this exhibit was to discuss presence and absence. In the canoe, one side of the canoe has noting inside of it. On the other side of the canoe, there is a pile of black dust, and right above the dust is where the tree was sitting. I believe that here, it is representing both presence and absence. The side with nothing on it represents absence and the other side with the tree on it represents presence. Because both absence and presence are together in the same boat, I believe that it represents that fact that both absence and presence can coincide equally at the same time and in the same