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Zo<\/span>\u00eb<\/span> Strickland | Editor-in-Chief<\/span><\/p>\n Religion, pop culture and politics all intertwine within the gallery halls of Campbell Hall. On Feb. 21, the Cannon Gallery of Art unveiled its newest winter term exhibition: \u201cWish You Were Here,\u201d a posthumous display of the mixed media works of local artist David George Andersen.<\/span><\/p>\n Andersen\u2019s work tends to incorporate multiple mediums <\/span>\u2014<\/span> displayed in the gallery are pieces that feature found objects, photographs and, in one case, flashing lights.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI think this work takes some time to fully comprehend, just as it took time for the artist to conceptualize,\u201d said Paula Booth, director of the Cannon Gallery. \u201cWhile it is exquisitely crafted work and looks beautiful in the space, some might be turned off by some of the imagery.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n The work shown in the Cannon Gallery doesn\u2019t shy away from bringing up controversial issues. Through his art, Andersen used everyday items that are often found in popular culture as a means to explore religious symbolism, the way religion is played out through the separation of church and state, as well as religion-based slurs. In his work, exhibit goers can find references to advertising campaigns, paint by number layouts and spirit boards.<\/span><\/p>\n When asked what she thinks Western students can get out of this exhibit, Booth responded, \u201cWhile I can’t say exactly what students will take from the exhibit, I do know that if they spend time with the work, they may be surprised by the depth of meaning and humor in the work, as well as its relevance to the current moment in history.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Andersen, who passed away in January 2017, had signed up to show his work at Western but was unable to see the exhibit through to its inception. Andersen\u2019s wife, Melanie Weston, chose the title and title piece for \u201cWish You Were Here.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cVacation,\u201d the piece of art highlighted on all of the publicity materials, is comprised of a Ouija board that spells out the chosen title for the exhibit. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cQuija boards that spell out \u2018wish you were here\u2019 are, in and of themselves, kind of humorous and intriguing,\u201d said Booth. \u201cThat combined with the fact that David is no longer with us just adds another bittersweet layer to the piece.\u201d \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In addition to working on his own art, Andersen held multiple positions relating to exhibit design; he worked as an exhibit designer at both the Frye Art Museum in Seattle, Washington and the Cheney Cowles Museum in Spokane, Washington. In a more local context, Andersen joined the team at Hallie Ford Art Museum in Salem, Oregon in 2007 and worked as both exhibition designer and chief preparator. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWish You Were Here\u201d will be on display in the Cannon Gallery until March 23. Next term, the gallery will be showcasing a display of art from students at Linn Benton Community College, as well as the 50th Annual Juried Student Art Exhibition.<\/span><\/p>\n Contact the author at journaleditor@wou.edu<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Zo\u00eb Strickland | Editor-in-Chief Religion, pop culture and politics all intertwine within the gallery halls of Campbell Hall. On Feb. 21, the Cannon Gallery of Art unveiled its newest winter term exhibition: \u201cWish You Were Here,\u201d a posthumous display of the mixed media works of local artist David George Andersen. Andersen\u2019s work tends to incorporate […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1030,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-entertainment"],"modified_by":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1030"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7236"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7236\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}