2008 Woodie Awards
88 Helmets by Women
Local women express feminist perspectives through art
Michael Stone
Issue date: 4/14/08 Section: Features
The lobby of the Paul W. Martin Honors College Building is usually crowded with students drinking coffee and reading periodicals about the daily hubbub of life, not with 88 decorated football helmets. But this wasn't the case on April 10 and 11, for there were, in fact, 88 decorated football helmets in the lobby of the Honors Building.
The helmets were painted all colors of the rainbow and more. The helmets were adorned with unique doo-dads and décor, giving each a sense of individuality.
But the helmets weren't turned from flat to festive to give the Blue Raider football team a new look on the field. They were decorated to give women an artistic way to tell their stories about being, well, women.
The exhibit, entitled "They Have a Story: Feminist Views of the Self," was orchestrated by three MTSU seniors, Riki-Lynne Spence, Michelle Francescon and Allison Cummings.
"I wanted to do something artistically based with just females, so I began thinking about a large collaborative piece," Spence explains. "I didn't want to just use flat canvas. [So] one night, right before I went to sleep, an image of a football helmet covered in glass popped in my head."
But this seemingly arbitrary image-popping has a great degree of logic behind it.
"I loved the idea of the helmet, for one, because it is such a masculine piece of equipment, and, secondly, because it is an interesting shape that makes for a neat 'canvas' that you can utilize all sides to create a very nice sculptural-type piece," Spence notes.
The three began collaborating thoughts and ideas in their Honors Interdisciplinary Seminar class entitled "The Hometown" taught by English Professor Ronald Kates.
"This was a great idea," Kates says. "It's a good example of what students can do when they think outside the ordinary."
He thought it was such a great idea, in fact, that he helped the three students out well beyond what his contractual obligations with MTSU tell him he must do.
The helmets were painted all colors of the rainbow and more. The helmets were adorned with unique doo-dads and décor, giving each a sense of individuality.
But the helmets weren't turned from flat to festive to give the Blue Raider football team a new look on the field. They were decorated to give women an artistic way to tell their stories about being, well, women.
The exhibit, entitled "They Have a Story: Feminist Views of the Self," was orchestrated by three MTSU seniors, Riki-Lynne Spence, Michelle Francescon and Allison Cummings.
"I wanted to do something artistically based with just females, so I began thinking about a large collaborative piece," Spence explains. "I didn't want to just use flat canvas. [So] one night, right before I went to sleep, an image of a football helmet covered in glass popped in my head."
But this seemingly arbitrary image-popping has a great degree of logic behind it.
"I loved the idea of the helmet, for one, because it is such a masculine piece of equipment, and, secondly, because it is an interesting shape that makes for a neat 'canvas' that you can utilize all sides to create a very nice sculptural-type piece," Spence notes.
The three began collaborating thoughts and ideas in their Honors Interdisciplinary Seminar class entitled "The Hometown" taught by English Professor Ronald Kates.
"This was a great idea," Kates says. "It's a good example of what students can do when they think outside the ordinary."
He thought it was such a great idea, in fact, that he helped the three students out well beyond what his contractual obligations with MTSU tell him he must do.
Viewing Comments 1 - 2 of 3
Daniel Bridges
posted 4/14/08 @ 11:33 AM CST
Ugh. This article was disappointing: I was hoping to finally have my question answered, "Why football helmets?"
This article seems to be saying that they really didn't have a point at all in using football helmets. (Continued…)
...
posted 4/14/08 @ 4:00 PM CST
From the article:
"I loved the idea of the helmet, for one, because it is such a masculine piece of equipment, and, secondly, because it is an interesting shape that makes for a neat 'canvas' that you can utilize all sides to create a very nice sculptural-type piece," Spence notes. (Continued…)
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