Community drives 'Future is Past' art
BUTLER TWP — Community means different things to different people, and it’s a concept that a Butler County Community College alumnus has translated into tangible, interactive art through his exhibit “The Future is the Past.”
Talking to various people around Niagara County in New York, over the course of a year, M. Scott Reagan invited them to write about their thoughts and the value of their community.
His work debuts at the Mary Hulton Phillips Gallery at the college from 6 to 8 p.m. today, and runs through Nov. 25.
He will be talking about his grant-funded art project at the opening reception tonight and answering questions. Light refreshments will be served.
“It has a lot to do with making poetry more accessible,” Reagan said. “The French Surrealists, they did work with community authorship. That’s where I sort of started, the ideas about community authorship.”
He spoke with people from different towns such as Niagara Falls and Lockport and also spoke with people from Tuscarora Nation, a Native American reservation in Niagara County. People could submit their poems or words through his exhibit website, voicesofniagara.com, or people could interact with him face to face during various community events he staged.
He then took those submitted words and created different sculptures using reclaimed barn wood and other sustainable materials. One piece has rotating lines on a six-foot tall sculpture, while another piece is an old computer programmed to recite different lines when a keyboard button is pressed.
Each piece explores history, sustainability and community authorship.
Reagan said he was first inspired by interactive installations as a BC3 student, when one of his classes took a trip to the Mattress Factory in Pittsburgh.
“That was a huge influence, just to ... see installation art, touch things, because sometimes you were encouraged to touch things,” he said. “That was very new to me. I was used to the idea of art being a framed painting hanging on a wall.”
He also sees connections between the Butler and Niagara County communities, with similar rural, post-industrial backgrounds.
“If you live in a place for a really long time and grow up in a place, you start to lose looking at that place with new eyes, with wonder,” he said. “And part of the thing I wanted to do was give that opportunity for people to look at their community with wonder and write about that.”
The art is great from a student perspective too, said Susan Changnon, BC3 spokeswoman.
“It’s just nice to have alums come back and do some creative things here. It really can spark an interest among the students,” she said.
Reagan graduated from Mars High School and has an associate degree in graphic design from BC3 and a bachelor’s degree in creative writing from Slippery Rock University.
This is his first art installation. It also was displayed in Lockport and Buffalo, N.Y., earlier this year.
