Stirling Unpacks Art Exhibition of Boxes

Meagan Stirling, Westmont assistant professor of art, unpacks an inventive exhibition, “Untold: Cardboard Box as Reliquary,” Sept. 4-Sept. 29 in the two ArtLabs at the Adams Center for the Visual Arts. There will be a free, public opening reception on Monday, Sept. 4, from 5-7 p.m. on the patio directly outside of ArtLab 1 on the first floor of Adams. A panel discussion is scheduled for Wednesday, Sept. 20, at 7 p.m. in Adams Center for the Visual Arts, room 216.

Stirling says the exhibition is the first iteration of a larger research project. “I've been using the cardboard box as a conceptual metaphor for the untold stories, memories and objects that are stored and kept in boxes of any sort, even boxes that may only exist in one’s mind,” she says. “These vessels, containers, depositories and reliquaries are for objects that are invested in a specific memory.

“My hope is that viewers will begin to think about their own ‘boxes’ and what they have stored away. Eventually I want to gather the stories of people who have memories and objects that they have kept.”

Stirling graduated from Whitworth University before earning a Master of Art and Master of Fine Art at the University of Wisconsin. As a printmaker and installation artist, Meagan enjoys working with large printmaking presses, acid, copper and etching. She taught at the University of Colorado Denver, including Beijing International College, for four years before coming to Westmont in 2014.