April 2 – May 27, 2011

The April-May exhibition in ACA’s Harris House Gallery is the outcome of a site specific, multimedia collaboration between three different artists. The artists, Robb Fladry, Jay Hollick, and Jordi Williams are University of South Florida graduate students.

Robb Fladry’s work deals with ways popular culture works to unify otherwise disparate communities, creating common ground that can transcend geography, age, and cultural background. Through manipulation of digital photography, the internet, and video, Fladry mixes and recontextualizes pop cultural images to create something new from the familiar, everyday images that saturate daily life.

James Hollick’s paintings and mixed media works explore the phenomenon of seeing spiritual images in everyday objects. Inspired by such events as The Virgin Mary’s appearances on toast or the face of Jesus in a seat cushion, Hollick seeks to question what can be considered a sacred object, and where the borders of sacredness lie.

Jordi Williams’ work addresses the ability of an experience, and the following sense of nostalgia for that experience, to transform disposable consumer objects into personal relics and symbols. She investigates the common characteristics of the consumer goods that often accompany personal milestones and celebrations, such as party and holiday decorations, party lighting and favors, in the hope of capturing their magic.

These artists share a common interest in transforming the everyday into the sublime. They also share an interest in the point where popular culture and spiritual experience blur. They employ similar tactics to evoke a strong reaction from viewers, such as use of theatrical presentation methods, extreme colors and innovative use of space. Rather than collaborating by each working on the same work of art, they will work together to transform the gallery space, creating an environment intended to cause the viewer to question issues surrounding the mundane, everyday world, the world depicted in popular culture, and the sacred, spiritual worlds we create to embody what we cannot see.