The Tabler Center for the Arts, Culture, and Humanities (TAC) has been infested with zombies. Well, not real ones, thankfully. However, “O Sh!t Zombies,” a photo exhibit, was displayed in the gallery from Oct. 8 through Oct. 15.
Twelve photos comprised of zombies doing normal everyday activities are placed all over the large white walls of the center’s art gallery, that is devoted exclusively to undergraduate artworks. Seniors Matt Flewelling and Joe Weinstein are responsible for the work and are also some of its subjects.
The exhibit, which is “an adrenaline-fueled blitzkrieg” according to Flewelling, was thrown together last minute when the two students found out that there was space available in the TAC.
“Ideas evolve,” Weinstein said, “but we didn’t have time to evolve.”
The photographs are very gruesome in many aspects. It only makes sense because they are zombies. The grossest of them features a zombie looking into the mirror while picking off his skin. It is funny-looking too due to the fact that the zombie has a full beard.
Perhaps the most appealing photo has two zombies sitting on a bench with Ronald McDonald. It is quite entertaining because one is eating French fries as the photo was taken, while the other is looking on with a serious face. One can only imagine what a child coming to enjoy McDonald’s would think if he saw the photo being taken- horrified nonetheless.
The photo that portrays the two zombies eating the McDonald’s fries is probably the best of the series in the fact that it is inverted and is truly eye-catching because of the originality of the style. Rather than a straight photo, the different colors pop out at you from afar.
Aside from the most stiking image, the most disturbing image in the gallery is that of a zombie character with a gun to his head. The zombie stares at the viewer with a blank look as if he was seconds away from truly ending his life. It is actually a pretty scary thought since he looks helpless, even if he is supposed to be a creature of the night.
“Some people read more into it [the photos] more than it is,” Flewelling said.
They originally had a deeper idea, Weinstein explained, but time constraints forced them to act quickly. “They came out like self-portraits,” he said.
According to Flewelling, they shot and put the show together in just under three weeks.
The exhibit unfortunately did not have a proper opening for the show because it was scheduled at the last moment. In spite of this, Flewelling and Weinstein did invite all their friends through word-of-mouth for the closing. “It’s our last year,” Flewelling said, “we want to enjoy it.”