Artwork and performances filled the Russell Sage Banquet Hall on Saturday evening during the recently rescheduled show hosted by Rensselaer’s Black Students’ Alliance. Several dozen pieces were on display, ranging from traditional drawing and painting to photography, animation, and other digital work.
I particularly liked the display by the artist collective “Wombularity,” which showcased digital animation and other digital art. As expected by their name, many of their pieces featured distorted fetal imagery in bright colors and patterns. Work from these artists, including more renders and animations, can be found on their Instagram page.
Performances began about an hour into the event, the first of which was poetry from Tre Jones ’21, followed by a soulful original song and piano accompaniment by Nadia Teutle ’21. To finish the night, Zaire Wilson ’20, as Zaire the Zeitgeist, showcased three original unreleased tracks.
Each act earned applause from the crowd. I appreciated how the performances were spaced out, giving time for the fifty-or-so attendees to mingle as the evening went on. I liked the social atmosphere the event encouraged, but the banquet hall could have held many more artworks and seemed a little barren. BSA hosts these shows every semester, and I would encourage any student artists at RPI to submit their work—I know I would have appreciated seeing more pieces fill the space.
