Caffrey's 'All Signs Point' Uses Immersive Banners to Reflect on Attention, Action and Community

A thesis exhibition by third-year master of fine arts candidate Serena Caffrey, All Signs Point, invites viewers to engage with movable banners that explore attention, presence and ambivalence. Caffrey's exhibition will be on display Jan. 19 through 30 at the University of Arkansas School of Art's Studio and Design Center from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. An opening reception will be held from 4-7 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 24, at the same location that includes a performance at 5:15 p.m. 

At first glance, the sensory delight and imaginative versatility of All Signs Point feels like something of childhood play, with animated language simply guiding viewers to "WALK, SUPPORT, GATHER." These and other words function like mantras: easy encouragements to direct action in gentle and productive ways. However, their phrasing is fickle and could easily be shuffled. "DON'T WAIT" when reversed implies an entirely different meaning: "WAIT, DON'T." Meaning is rendered ambiguous, or at least in constant renegotiation.  

Each day, Caffrey, who grew up in Fayetteville, rearranges the banners, allowing them to take on new, layered significance. They meticulously form each sheet of handmade paper at home, using equipment on loan from Jo Ann Kaminsky — Caffrey's childhood art teacher and a long-time Fayetteville arts advocate — whose nonprofit The Art Experience once occupied the site of the current School of Art.

Caffrey says that the work is meant to, in part, focus on recent histories of displacement that the signs gesture, referencing the importance of orienting to where we are by where — collectively — we've been. Amidst ongoing and escalated violence, "DON'T FORGET," the banners remind. "LOOK," they insist. "COME BACK" they beg. In their tactility and constant motion, they call viewers back to precious and vital human attention despite failures of heart both personally and collectively.   

"Serena's thesis work — an installation involving handmade paper objects and live performance — manifests as a series of modular banners that disrupt the path of the passerby," says Calista Lyon, assistant professor of photography and expanded media. "The brightly colored banners, composed of textual fragments and symbols, accumulate into an entourage of quiet propositions — enticing us to consider the political implications of our attention, presence, action and ambivalence."   

A group performance activating the installation will take place during the opening reception featuring original music by Caffrey and improvisatory interludes where the displayed objects contribute to the soundscape.   

"The performance is exciting for me, because it is the first time I'm combining paper, movement and music all into one piece, as well as inviting others to perform with me," says Caffrey. "It feels appropriate when the work in some ways is about coming together even when we're individually falling apart. [...] To be able to share a project that is more collective in orientation in the place I where, as a kid, was nurtured to be an artist is a really meaningful experience I look forward to sharing with my community, both within the School of Art and beyond."    

This exhibition, hosted at the School of Art which is housed in the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences, was supported in part by the Arkansas Arts Alliance, the Craft Emergency Relief Fund, and the Walton Family Charitable Support Foundation. It is free and open to the public 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. or by special appointment.   

For more information the School of Art master of fine arts in studio art program, visit www.art.uark.edu.