After hearing guest lecturer Dr. Scott Henderson speak about Canadian artist Michael Snow I have a new perspective of Mackenzie Chown Complex at Brock University. For most, Mac Chown is a complicating maze of a building, to first year students – it is a nightmare. Snow helped work with the architect of the building and his intent was to bring people together at the different meeting points of the building. Just like the crossing paths of the building; students from different years and majors would cross paths. With the hope of these people not just passing each other, but sitting down to socialize, there are sitting areas at every meeting point of the hallways. There is never a direct route from point A to point B, and there is never a direct way to meet someone new.
While walking through Mac Chown there are several different pieces of Snow’s art. However, until this presentation some would not even notice the art or even know it was art. There are a variety of paintings on the wall throughout the building, with Snow’s main focus being: framing. A large frame made out of mirror hangs on the wall near block J, I had seen it, and wondered it purpose. The lower part of the mirror was covered by a large glass case, making it hard to realize that the mirror was in fact a frame. After Henderson spoke about Snow, that glass case was actually moved aside and the full mirror frame was visible.
We should be showcasing this work, not hiding it. Not only were we hiding it physically with the glass case for example but we were hiding it by not informing anyone about this art. A well-known Canadian artist has created several different art works at our school, including a building; why are we not proud of this? I find it so fascinating that this “hidden” art exists amongst our school. It is like uncovering this long lost treasure from almost 50 years ago.
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