Printmaker Kelly Tegen wasn't just playing dress-up when she created a life-size, paper Barbie doll, complete with interchangeable lingerie - she was creating art for the annual "Master of Fine Arts Exhibition" at the Kresge Art Museum.
With prints made from actual lingerie, gallery patrons who change the attire of the 6-foot doll with a 19-inch waist can note that real women's clothes don't fit Barbie's exaggerated physique.
"It allows viewers to be engaged in art in a different way," Tegen said.
The art exhibit shows the work of students who will be receiving their master's degrees in the fine arts and whose work includes mixed media, paintings, prints, sculpture and video.
Tegen said she used feminine objects as metaphors to explore stereotypes and facets of female sexuality.
"I am influenced by contemporary society and my daily experiences as a woman," Tegen said.
The exhibit runs until April 9 and also features works by Juan Martinez De Medina, Dusty Mitchell, Sarah Slobodzian, Paula Stuart Hankins and Greg Wade.
"Each artist is trying to say something and it's all very different," art education junior Ashley Snyder said while she viewed the exhibit.
Sculptor Mitchell created a portrait made from Legos and a world map and American flag made entirely out of toy Army men.
"Part of my ideas for sculptures rely on a person already relating with the material," Mitchell said. "That's a way that I can connect with the audience."
Political sculpture artist Wade also said he used everyday objects, such as troll dolls and toy guns, to create alternative ways to express social commentary about war, President Bush and the politically elite.
"It's a sarcastic view of our culture," Wade said as he pointed to a machine sculpture that delivered both whimsical circus music and represented America's never-ending quest for liberty.
Graphic design artist Stuart Hankins used large black-and-white typography and printed media so viewers could look at letterforms and images with new eyes.
"I really find it intriguing to create a balance between form and counterform," Stuart Hankins said.
Painter Slobodzian tirelessly worked for 70 hours a week for two and a half months to turn her friends into portraits of Greek gods. Each of her portraits is allegorical, representing both a color and a persona, and depicts a person who has contributed to her work as an artist.
"It's contemporary and noncontemporary put together," Slobodzian said.
Filmmaker Martinez De Medina's major piece in the exhibit, "The Mystery of an Ordinary House," is anything but conventional. For one thing, the main characters of the 30-minute video are the miniature wooden sculptures of a man and a woman.
"It was fresh and clever and very tongue-in-cheek," fine arts senior Jamie Flatter said. "His foreign sense of humor is really interesting."
