Bay Area artist Chris Sollars has created a large-scale video installation highlighting the symbiotic relationship of learning between animals and students on the campus of UC Davis, a university rooted in agriculture and home to the world’s foremost school of veterinary medicine.
For the commission, the artist uses the hoof and the foot as a grounding point and creates imagery generated by conversations with UC Davis faculty members and students. Sollars has reached out to students, asking them about topics such as the body, socialization and stress, and confronting conflict. These conversations have formed the basis of the artist’s imagery and the parallels he draws between how students and animals on campus react to stress.
Sollars is best known for creating mixed-media installations that reclaim, recapture and disrupt public spaces through interventions and performances. Among other honors, he is a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship (2013), San Francisco Arts Commission Individual Artist Commission Grant (2013) and a Headlands Center for the Arts residency (2009).
This exhibition was on view November 13, 2016 – March 26, 2017. Curator: Jennifer Wagelie, Manetti Shrem Museum.
