Acrylic on wood 10'x15'
This is a piece i did for the Harry Albright Scholarship at Western Michigan University. My goal for this piece was to create a piece that made the viewer (which was primarily students) to reflect on themselves and think about how technology like iPODS and cell phones have affected our generation.
Campus Pointe Art makes statement on college lifeexcerpt from an article by Allen Brewer for the Western Herald 2/21/08
"I think the technology of our generation is starting to isolate us," Fugedi said.
The 10-by-15-foot acrylic on wood painting depicts students, all with either iPods or cell phones with only one making eye contact with anyone. Fugedi himself is the figure, staring straight at the viewer.
"In our time, it feels odd to make eye contact," he said. "It's a reflection with light commentary."
It worked. The piece is disconcerting in a way that eludes the viewer until pointed out. Direct eye contact from a massive figure on the side of a building while walking home from class can come as a shock.
Fugedi said that what he wanted to evoke from the students was self-assessment, for them to take a look back at themselves and, instead of walking with heads down and headphones on, look around and appreciate life.
"What if nobody had iPods or cell phones," he asked. "It's hard for us to remember what it was like without them."
He emphasized the beauty of the campus around students and the many different cultures and learning experiences that could be taken advantage of. Fugedi also stressed the difficulty people seem to have in breaking out of their own groups and personal bubbles. And with the advent of the iPhone and its brethren, technology is becoming its own clique. The only difference between this and the cliques of high school would be that at least then, there was human interaction.
