Throughout the history of the world humans have been intrigued by a condition referred to as immortality. Immortality is the state in which one defies death, thus conquering the realm of being a mortal. Scientists have searched for ways to create this phenomenon. With there over thought out and complex ideas they had managed to overlook the obvious. People had been achieving immortality for years. The key is not in physical exesistance but in your actions, creations, and reputation which will live on long after you die.
T. L. Lange, a reputable artist from Atlanta Georgia, once said “Music and art play the dominant roles in life. In the liberation from the self, the ripples which are left to be remembered. It is in this moment that we achieve immortality and imagine what goes well with corn flakes. ” The visual Arts students at The North Carolina School of the Arts have utilized this knowledge in such a way so that their class has remained immortal. As a class, the class of 1986, the students composed a mural.
Dr. Chaplin created the mural and gave each student a representation. He managed to re-create an image of each student through regenerating his or her image from a photograph. The canvas is divided into eighteen individual and distinct sections. Each section is devoted to one student picture or figure, and their mood or feelings in which they wanted to portray. The designer, Chaplin, gave the work a sense of unity by using all pure hue colors and geometric construction with illustrative organic shapes to create the students.
The use of repetition in color and general shapes gives the piece an intimate since of unity that also pulls the students together in a metaphoric sense. The work is residing in the student commons. The commons is designed as a place for students to dine, relax and visit with their friends. Therefor this is an appropriate place for the painting because it helps create the feeling that they are relaxing with the students of today.
The work is not at all accented by architectural lighting or by any frame, and is not put on a pedestal to be observed. It is merely living in the room the same way any one typical student would. The visual artists, long since graduated, have left an immortal image of themselves behind. They have achieved a since on immortality though art. Whatever they do or wherever they go in their lives they will always be reflected on and noted as once and still bieng present here at the North Carolina school of the Arts.