Shown here are two of the ten canvases from the exhibit STAGES that can be viewed at the art gallery (Photo by Martin Musialczyk)

By Madeline Kimberly

Simple, large, white floor-to-ceiling canvases with barely anything on them are currently taking up the whole space of SCC’s gallery walls.

STAGES is a physical exhibit where the pieces’ main purpose is to look good behind the lens of a camera.

STAGES has been up since Jan. 4 and the exhibit will continue until Feb. 3.

STAGES was created by Caroline Kapp, a Seattle visual artist. Kapp describes herself as a “photographer who draws a lot.”

Kapp has very close relations to Shoreline Community College; she’s given a few lectures and demonstrations to our campus’s photography students.

As you walk into the gallery, you see that there are 10 large, white, rectangular canvases on the walls of the gallery. The canvases are so large that they take up wall space from the ceiling to the floor.

These 10 canvases barely have anything on them; there are no paintings or photographs, there is barely even color. Most of them are plain and it is just confusing to look at.

Kapp is very interested in boxes and rectangles, she even affirms the fact that “these neat little consolidations of space (the boxes and rectangles) have become integral to my thought process.”

This fact reflects very clearly on her pieces in STAGES.

The pieces she created are somehow well ordered in a jumbled way; they are all the same size and go with each other really well, but at the same time they don’t make any sense. Kapp remarks that she “delights in the edges of compositions, and the potential of what the edges mask out, as well as what they reveal to the eye.”

The simplicity of the pieces are a part of its attraction. There are layers to be unraveled beneath the austerity of these pieces.

The show was booked by Claire Putney, a faculty member. Putney had booked Kapp last winter but the contents of the show were still unknown then.

Putney says, “Part of the gift that artists offer the rest of us is a very personal, alternate perspective that challenges us to question our own understanding of truth, definitions of beauty and purpose.”

That’s exactly what STAGES offers its audience. The uncertainty we may feel as we look at the pieces, the “alternate perspective” we obtain as we see it through the lens of our cameras.

According to Putney, “We (the viewers) are presented with an first-hand look at Kapp’s process and can make a direct connection between the scene that is constructed and the final edited photograph.”

Kapp created the pieces in STAGES with the thought of how these pieces would look good when photographed; through this, she creates a method of interaction with the audience, seducing them to engage in her pieces.

“Each panel has been staged with subject matter to be captured in-camera as a photograph,” she mentions.

STAGES is an interesting show that is designed to leave you dumbfounded and questioning. “It is a very intimate exchange that requires both the artist and viewer to participate,” Putney says.

It’s definitely not worth missing out on. Come by Building 1000 on your way to the bus or to the PUB and go check out STAGES before Feb. 3.