Chris Banyas
Life Editor
Quick! Say out loud the first five things that come into your mind when you hear the following word: art.
Imagine a scenario in which 20 people are placed in a circle and asked to carry out this task simultaneously. The resulting wall of sounds mingling in the air above the circle would be an aural representation of the divisive nature of art.
Art is one of the few words in the English language able to elicit a different response from every person who hears it, speaks it or sees it printed upon a page. What is art to one is incomprehensible or even offensive to another, but the nature and potential of all art is ubiquitous: it is able to subvert established ideas and to evoke a response.
Sometimes art is born from chaos. Much like the phonemes and syllables crashing into each other above the 20 test subjects, a chaotic event is one of the major contributing factors that started Colin Wintz, a graduate student in the art department, along a path that will hopefully culminate in a trip to Prague to display his artistic visions.
“I was on a bike trip and my dad got hurt right outside of Mt. Borah. So I stayed with family friends, one of whom was Doug Warnock, and he basically got me to apply to the MFA program, so that kind of started my career here at ISU,” said Wintz. “He had a bike wreck and broke all his ribs and he got Life-Flighted out, but happily he is doing fine.”
Wintz, a student at ISU since January of 2015, entered and was selected to present at the upcoming 2015 Prague Quadrennial, which will take place in the capital city of the Czech Republic from June 18 through June 28.
“The Prague Quadrennial is the world’s largest event in scenography. Scenography entails everything from costume design to set design and lighting; everything that contributes to a performance or a production,” said Wintz. “It could be compared to the Olympics of costume design.”
While much of the event is competitive, Wintz , having already been selected, has passed through the competitive phase already, and will participate in a category called “Show and Tell.”
“I have a time slot at which I will present, and explain my body of work. I have six minutes to do this, and I’ll also be able to see everybody else’s presentation,” said Wintz.
The central element of Wintz’s presentation is a costume that he has been working on in various stages over the course of a year, which is originated from his fascination with Mardi Gras and Carnivale.
“The whole theme of Mardi Gras ties into this huge umbrella of Carnival and its representations across the world. I know that Prague has some very interesting costumes and very interesting ways of celebrating Carnival,” said Wintz. “It’s a very interconnected, kind of strange theory behind it that has a lot to do with colonialism. With the spread of Roman Catholicism, that’s brought the world in contact to the idea of Carnival and how it’s been celebrated by a different stratus of class.”
Every individual piece of Wintz’s costume is significant, from the design choices to materials used. Through the use of screen printing done by Wintz himself, the very fabric becomes a medium for narrative.
“What creates the interest of this piece is what’s actually happening in the screen print, because there’s a lot of subversion. There are these bishop-looking characters with masks on or with costumes that are similar to my own, so it’s kind of a weird idea of representing the costume that I’m wearing in the imagery on the costume,” said Wintz. “There’s things happening like these masked, capped figures and they’re doing things that seem a little bit out of the ordinary to these characters. So there are some people that are praying or prostrating or celebrating this kind of reserved spiritualness. There’s a woman praying, there’s a guy that has his hands up in the air like he’s praising, there’s a guy with a pope hat who is basically blessing people but he’s got this weird kind of phallic mask on. Another one is a hooded monk figure who is whipping the people.”
The screen printed imagery ties into the celebration of Mardi Gras in Louisiana, where Wintz’s mother is originally from. Some of the printed figures are taken from period illustrations while others were designed by Wintz himself.
“The costumes represent a number of different profiles. You’ll see people wearing the capuchon, which is the pointed hat symbolic of the henins that were worn by the royalty. They also wear the pope hat, or the mitre, to make fun of the clerics, and they also wear the scholarly hat, the graduation hat,” said Wintz. “It’s all about subverting the actual roles that they’re presenting. Subverting the role of the church, subverting the role of royalty or subverting the role of the scholar, and it’s a voice that was given to the lower classes because it was the one day where they could act out of place. It’s me. It’s my identity, it’s a little bit of history, it’s a little bit of fiction and I think that’s what’s special about the costume.”
Originally from Spokane, Washington Wintz was interested in art from an early age.
“I was good at it in high school. It came easy. I think I was pretty much an aimless student at the time,” said Wintz. “I was interested in many different things and I was always drawn to courses that had an art requirement.”
Through attending Evergreen State College in Washington for two years and experiencing a loosely structured art program, before eventually finishing up his undergraduate course of study in Montreal at Concordia University in a more structured environment, Wintz has narrowed his focus and found his niche.
“At the same time, I’ve never been that concentrated or disciplined. Even at Montreal I was doing drawing, sculpture and painting, whereas some students would pick one medium. I think I’ve always been bouncing from medium to medium. I’ve always been interdisciplinary,” said Wintz.
While some students do choose to diversify their artistic endeavors, it is much more common to focus on one art form.
“I’ve been lucky to have teachers that have been supportive and inspired me to go on, but have always been stepping outside of what the typical class structure is,” said Wintz.
Collaboration and the concept of community are two aspects of costume design and art in general that have kept Wintz interested, excited and inspired to continue.
“I think being in Mardi Gras makes me realize the potential for coming together as a community and working with other people’s abilities and having that social environment. I think I’ve rejected the idea of an artist being a solitary person and my life is based on social relationships, so that’s very important to me,” said Wintz. “I will continue to search out other artists to work with and other artist communities because that’s what drives me on. Seeing what other work people are doing and seeing how I can interact with that.”
Wintz is currently in the process of applying for grants and scholarships to help raise money for his trip to Prague, which he alone is responsible for raising. He is also in the process of adding a donation system to his website where anyone can help him reach Prague.
For more information on Colin Wintz, visit his website: www.colinwintz.weebly.com.
