Professor Aly Ogasian’s class turned Scripps’ buildings into living art installations
By Lauren Mar 鈥�25
For 24 hours this spring, the two staircases in 桃子视频鈥檚 Steele and Lang Halls that bridge the second and third floor were transformed into art installations. As part of Assistant Professor of Art Aly Ogasian鈥檚 class on the subject, four groups of three students created original sculptures to reflect the buildings鈥� pasts.
鈥淚 wanted them to engage with the history of the Lang and Steele buildings through their former usage, their brutalist architectural style, or the history of the land underneath the buildings,鈥� shares Ogasian. 鈥淏y creating something that can fit into the existing architecture of the building, we’re thinking about site specificity and how the context of site can impact or inform the meaning of a piece of artwork.鈥�
Ogasian had heard a rumor that there used to be animal cages on the roof of the Lang building, which prompted her to investigate Steele and Lang鈥檚 histories as former science buildings. She had observed markings on the floor and indications that the building had been configured in a different way.
Pitzer students with their sculpture
Together with Jennifer Martinez Wormser and Ashley Larson at Denison Library, she discovered that Steele and Lang used to be called the 鈥淛oint Science Building.鈥� They found archival images of the building from the 1970s and 1980s, original floor plans from 1966, and references in documents from offices around The Claremont Colleges. Also with the help of Garrett Solomon and Josh Reeder, executive director of facilities management and auxiliary operations, Ogasian was able to source the original blueprints for the Lang and Steele buildings.
Linking art to the history of Scripps鈥� buildings
For their assignment, Scripps students Ella Gillespie Bailey 鈥�25, Giulia Bellon 鈥�25, Elle Desmarteau 鈥�26, and Mikayla Stout 鈥�25 created a panel with a collection of Ziploc bags containing different organic samples. Objects ranged from moss to contact lenses to rotting fruit.
鈥淯sing Ziploc bags was intentional,鈥� Desmarteau says. 鈥淲e wanted the installation to reflect things that we interact with daily, as well as the food system. There are scientific processes that go into our food systems that keep our food fresh for like a year at a time to maintain systems of mass food production that are often discriminatory.鈥�
The group鈥檚 project also emphasized how plastics and natural materials have become integrated with each other.
Scripps artists transformed Ziploc bags into pockets of discovery
鈥淲e wanted to create an alternative way of examining the byproducts of everything we do here as students, from the plastic and artificial 3D print detritus to natural food and bodily waste,鈥� Bailey says. 鈥淚t’s been interesting to see the way certain things have decayed while others have settled and stayed the same. This is both life and art as an experiment.鈥�
Their installation is further tied to the history of Steele and Lang through its brutalist architecture. Bellon adds: 鈥溾�奧e incorporated wood panels for casting the concrete of the walls. Playing off how the scientific history of this building is a mystery to so many people who pass through here every day鈥攚e wanted to reflect 鈥奲rutalism鈥檚 material honesty.鈥�
The other installation group of Pitzer students Cameron MacDonald, Quinn Nachtrieb, and Micha Buchman, created a large interactive sculpture of a corpse which encased the staircase leading to Steele鈥檚 third floor. The group affectionately calls the sculpture 鈥淧roject MAWMA (Membrane of an Activated Womb in Magnified Actuality),鈥� inspired by the students鈥� shared interest in the animal testing that was once conducted in Steele.
Interacting with the installations in Lang and Steele Halls
鈥淚 particularly wanted to work with the building itself as a body that holds history and create the feeling of a creature too big for the space,鈥� shares MacDonald. 鈥淣ot being able to see the entire body from any one angle requires the audience to explore a body of mundane materials forming both alien and familiar biology: descending into her mouth, ducking through her ribcage, navigating around her organs, and then gathering at her uterus. I wanted the journey itself to inspire empathy, inviting individuals to build a connection whichever way they chose.鈥�
In addition to creating the sculpture, the students created a satirical safety video from the fake laboratory World Tree Labs and mock non-disclosure agreements. Nachtrieb says these features build a narrative and prompt viewers to question the nature of humanization and dehumanization.
鈥淏y giving people this incomplete puzzle, we were able to create room for their minds to take an active role in the installation,鈥� he adds.
Collaborative strength: Preparing emerging artists for future projects
Each student artist agrees that the assignment let them be creative with installation art and build something greater than the sum of its parts.
Artists collaborating outside of Lang
Desmarteau shares, 鈥淭he most challenging and rewarding part of the installation was working with a group. It can be hard to compromise your vision for something, but I realized that my partners鈥� opinions made the piece look and function better than something I would’ve made on my own.鈥�
Ogasian reflects that working with the students has been a learning process for her to consider different approaches to installation. She emphasizes the assignment鈥檚 role in preparing students for future projects.
鈥淭he students had to go through a miniature version of the actual process of making a site-specific installation鈥攃reating maquettes, writing proposals, getting approval from facilities鈥攁nd learning how to tell other people outside of the artistic discipline what they鈥檙e working on,鈥� she says. 鈥淚nterfacing with a wider group of people than just faculty is valuable because the reality of art making is you’re working with many different types of people. Scripps鈥� facilities team, especially Josh Reeder and Ed Fimbres, was open to some really innovative ideas鈥攚e had great allies.鈥�