(Gallery Review) ‘Synesthesia: remembered bodies’ lives up to its title by Erika Wilkins, Spectrum Editor

On a desperately windy weekday, as I aimlessly strolled through campus, an exhibit in the Commons Gallery accomplished a feat that until recently was unheard of. Jordan Roeder’s “Synesthesia: remembered bodies” garnered not only a passing glance, but a more-than-fleeting interest.

The brightly covered canvas on the back facing wall of the gallery immediately grasped my attention. Even from a distance, its eccentric impetus and blatant passion was arresting. So much so, that I decided to venture further into the gallery and take a closer look. Once inside, the rest of Roeder’s excitable images proved just as compelling and as mysteriously erotic as the first.

At first glimpse, the mixed media drawings are misleading. They look more like scratches of color and form merged to fill white space. Abstract art so often falls into that unreadable category. However, a closer examination (and a quick perusing of the artist statement) reveals the chicken scratch as sensual representations of bodies twisted, contorted, and pivoted around one another.

As I continued to gaze, entranced by Roeder’s charcoal images, I embarked on a sensatory journey of unexpected proportion. A black and white, 48” x 65” charcoal and conté crayon canvas in particular stirred a sensile reaction that went miles beyond the visual.

Unfortunately, not every piece in his collection had the same apprehending impact. The grand representation Roeder achieved in some of her larger pieces failed to translate to the 3” x 3” collection of work that lacked comparable synthesis.

While Roeder’s images aren’t as emotive as Jackson Pollack’s famed work, they are well on their way.