The Pittsburgh Banal, the 2006 Carnegie Mellon Masters of Fine Arts (MFA) Thesis Exhibition, is now on display in the Regina Gouger Miller Gallery. Some pieces in the exhibit are in fact banal, or "commonplace," while others stood up to the title as complete opposites in terms of their provocative originality. The exhibit features the works of student artists Matt Barton, William Cravis, Takehito Etani, Jesse Hulcher, Thomas Sturgill, and Tiffany Sum.

The first floor of the exhibit, featuring Barton's art, takes visitors to a place that is somewhere between Alice's trip down the rabbit hole and Dorothy's over the rainbow. It's a bright, multi-sensory, interactive experience. The moving installation is somewhat reminiscent of religious icons, created with a colorful variety of materials such as the faux grass and flowers that arrange the "floor" of the installation. It is interactive in that the deer that is centrally located in the installation is also a wine dispenser, an interesting though obvious artistic interpretation of the comparison of Christ's blood to wine.

The other installation on this floor is, when viewed from the outside, a cloud and rainbow. Visitors can climb into the cloud and slide down the latter. Inside, the cloud's lightning flashes and thunder rolls.

The second floor is somewhat anticlimactic color-wise after seeing the first floor. It looks rather stark in its mostly black and white tones. Two pieces on this floor impress nonetheless. Sum's "Fingering" is an intriguing and provocative 5-channel reactive video installation. This piece is both an installation and performance: the pointing fingers of the character displayed on the four cloth "walls" partially close people into the installation and follow them as the visitors  move about within the cloth "walls" of the piece.

The interesting invention of Etani, the "HBBB Heart Beat Bass Booster," amplifies the heartbeat of the wearer. It is intended that the piece be worn by a driver, thus unifying the car and driver. Visitors to the gallery can try on the HBBB and change the music by reacting to and with their inner rhythms. This piece is a great example of the interactivity of some of the pieces displayed at The Pittsburgh Banal, but Etani failed to include directions on how to operate the device.

The third floor featured the work of one artist, Cravis, and was primarily about social commentary and awareness. In particular, the majority of the pieces on this floor concern the governmental response since the September 11 terrorist attacks. The impressive work includes "Untitled" (c.2005) is comprised of giant Tide-esque bottles with sadly funny tag lines that play on the rhetoric of clothing detergents: "fights terror with terror," "loads and loads of lies," "safe for most rich folks."

Cravis' piece "Ten Seconds" is comprised of ten attaché cases on wooden pedestals. Inside the cases, The New York Times is cut and bundled like money. The piece represents 10 seconds (one case per second) of the Department of Defense's 2006 budget: $419 billion in total, or $13,300 per second, is superbly represented by this creative artist.

The best way to view this exhibit is by starting on the second floor, going to the third, and then viewing the first. This arrangement is less shocking to the system due to the kinds of art featured on each floor. 

The exhibit runs through Sunday, April 23. The students are discussing their work at noon in the gallery: Cravis and Hulcher spoke on Tuesday, April 4; Barton and Etani on Wednesday, April 5; and Sturgill and Sum on Thursday, April 6. The gallery is free, but accepts donations from visitors. Gallery hours are Tuesday through Sunday, 11:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. For directions and more information, visit the Regina Gouger Miller Gallery website.

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