Spectators who ventured into Windgate Center for Fine and Performing Arts on the evening of March 20 were transported into an otherworldly environment of whimsical, discordant melodies interspersed within the colorful and disruptive visuals of UCA’s newest art installation: “Radical.”

The installation was designed by artist Crystal Wagner in collaboration with over 60 UCA art students and faculty who helped her build the large-scale piece.

The bright, web-like piece, which was made of neon fabric recycled from plastic bottles rescued from coastlines and chicken wire, spreads and creeps along the South-facing glass of Windgate and continues into the interior of the building, creating the illusion of continuity despite the glass barrier.

In Wagner’s artist statement, she said, “My installments are hybrids between manufactured materials and organic forms and structures…They explore the dialogue between consumer culture, artifice and what it feels like to walk through an environment.”

Wagner said, “So worlds are comprised of sound, movement and the places that we visit and we can see. They’re also comprised of the community that inhabits them, and that’s what something like this takes. So, in terms of where I’m coming from, inspiration-wise, the worlds are inspired by the ecological landscape of the world around us: nature, forms and structures.” 

Dean of the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, Tom Williams said, “We are just a few days away from the 25th anniversary of the Artist in Residence and it is exactly what we kind of need… we continue to do things that defy expectations, that supply wonder in a world which is desperately needing it….I say all the time that my peers at other institutions are starving for this kind of work.”

Leslie Macklin, the faculty scholar for the Artist in Residence program said that the project started three years ago.

Kaitlyn Branscum is a sophomore fine arts major who was one of the assistants who helped Wagner along with fellow student Jasmine Miller.

Branscum said, “So I was able to help out Crystal from like 10 to like 12 hours a week, and just help out with anything I could. It was a crazy process because I remember just starting out, before Crystal was even here, doing stuff in the flex studio, like just cutting the fabric, looping and just doing that process over and over and over again.”

“And then she was actually here. We started messing with the chicken wire and building the armature and then attaching the fabric onto it … I didn’t even know how it’s gonna turn out and I was like, ‘How is this gonna happen?’ and then we just started putting it up and it just like, was there.”

Branscum said that each foundation student had to work five hours a week with their studios to help with the installation.

Macklin said that each student got to make a “nubbin” that surrounds the larger display and that each student can claim as their contribution to the installation.

“I’ve never been able to work with an artist before and I got not only experience to work with this kind of project with her, I got advice…And I’m not really, like, a huge, 3D artist, but it made me think more about, what are the possibilities, and how could I make it go farther and farther, just with things that I learned.”

Macklin said this might be Wagner’s last installation.

“And you look at it and you’re like, ‘How can this thing be her last big installation?’ Well, let me show you the scratches [from the chicken wire], let me show you my glove tan, let me show you every single student that participated on this understands how hard this art-making process is on one’s body.”

Wagner said, “I think one of the things that I do when I travel places and I create things is I’m working with communities because it is a village. And for every one of you that put a pair of gloves on and sat out there in the sun, the rain, on one of those brutal days where it was freezing, we’re all building together.”

During the unveiling event, attendees could enjoy snacks and several performances.

One of the offered refreshments included bottles of Jarritos that were wrapped with sheet music. During the live music immersive experience, attendees were asked to sip their soda to a certain level and then play a note on their bottle by blowing air across the rim.

Matt Taylor and Blake Tyson organized the music for the event.

In their artist statement they said, “Inspired by Crystal Wagner’s fascinating, colorful work, we have woven together an hour of music that undulates and changes to evoke–through songs and time–a ‘mood world’ for ‘Radical’ to inhabit.”

Wagner said, “When it comes to the sound component, nothing brings life into work the way that sound does, and the way that sound moves through the air and into our bones, and that’s what I really wanted everyone to experience here with the work. And I’m so grateful for the musical collaborators, for everyone who played, because these are things that we walk through, but with music and sound, they’re living spaces.”

The event also included an experimental video screening and performances by aerialist Jesse Rodden outside of the South entrance of Windgate.

Rodden said “This was also my first time doing like anything like this, outside of a classroom setting…I was so excited to get to do it, but with it being so close to the ground it gave me the opportunity to edit a lot of the things that I tend to normally do, and try new positions and new poses and new shapes that I really enjoyed doing. And this is my first time dancing…to abstract sound, you know, taking these interesting sounds of nature that I was provided and just going with it and I really enjoyed it.”