Sam Dunaway | News Editor
What humans leave behind can tell a story of their lives. It can impact future generations, either positively or negatively, for years to come. Senior Eric Frey captured this concept in a multi-media sculpture displayed behind Bellamy Hall named “Wreckreational Fishing.”
Frey, an art major focusing in 3D design, was approached by Western professor Dr. Henry Hughes to design a piece centered around an old rusted motor from the 1940s. The sculpture features a small boat, River Wolf, in front of a silhouette of the Cascades. The river bed on which the boat lies has a tangle of fishing line, beer bottles, old clothes and shoes, as well as a soccer ball.
Frey described his childhood days on the river with his stepdad as inspiration for this piece. “For me, it was really looking at fishing in general and how fishing relates to life. So the inspiration was — how do you make an impactful statement about fishing and life? So I went back to my days as a kid.”
Most of the debris featured in the piece was taken from the Clackamas River that Frey frequented as a child. “All kinds of stuff gets left on the river,” Frey commented. “And going back to when I was a kid, all this junk gets left behind by fishermen. And as recreational fishermen, that’s our responsibility to keep the areas clean … I’ve got kids who are probably soon going to have kids of their own, and I’d like my grandkids to be able to go out fishing and not have a polluted landscape to go to.”
Along with the important environmental message of this piece, an underlying meaning was revealed. “The piece kind of evolved into a metaphor for life,” Frey explained. “The stuff that we leave behind kind of junks up our life, and the longer you live, the more junk you acquire … if you leave things alone, things just kind of decay.”
The plaque next to the sculpture reads, “As you look through this piece, think of what your forgot; think of what you have left behind, both memories and items. What will you do to conserve natural areas so that future generations can go fishing with family and friends? … What legacy do you leave for them? It need not be wreckreactional fishing.”
Visit the sculpture behind Bellamy Hall and view more of Frey’s work in the Werner University Center gallery beginning Feb. 22.
Contact the author at journalnews@wou.edu
Photo by: Paul F. Davis
