Performance art group Call Your Mom, performing their piece "Powerplay."

This fall’s exhibit, titled Synesthesia, sought to showcase artworks that could reach viewers across multiple senses. By presenting an exhibition in a non-traditional space, Helicon offers audiences a unique artistic experience outside of conventional parameters.

With over 40 University of Michigan student artists contributing, our one-night exhibition presented paintings, drawings, installations, textiles, sculptures, films and performances that successfully stimulated more than just the sense of sight. Works like Natalie Grove’s Dip Your Big Toe in This Pond and Fall In and Last Night I Had a Sex Dream About a 46 Year Old by Kalli Kouf created interactive spaces that enticed viewers to transcend that very label and become listeners and feelers. Meanwhile, two-dimensional works such as Jordyn Fishman’s multi-media painting BARK BARK BARK ROAR and Katie Raymond’s photo series Corporate America evoked a sort of timeless and spaceless sensation in viewers, one that could only be felt, not thought. The exhibit also included live music from three musical performers: Saaj Tak, Platonic Boyfriends, and Broccoli.

In every aspect, Synesthesia engulfed countless university students and faculty in near sensory overload. Visitors to the exhibit were never once able to isolate one sense from another; the synthesis of human performance, physical structures, live music, and visual artworks made Synesthesia the uniquely stimulating exhibit that it was.

-The Helicon Executive Board & Exhibition Committe

Read a review of Synesthesia.