Over the last few months we have been offering a glimpse into the creative process of the Art Department’s graduating master of fine arts candidates, who are presenting their final thesis exhibitions throughout the spring semester. These exhibitions represent the culmination of years of dedicated study and artistic exploration, showcasing our students’ diverse talents and innovative approaches to art-making.
As an artist, Casey Fletcher is interested in exploring the idea of what we owe each other as individuals and as a community. His sculptures, drawings, prints, paintings, and video pieces often use historical accounts to illustrate how people in the past and present have pursued justice in the face of adversity.
“Much of what I make is an attempt to bridge the present with the past to suggest that we are not alone in time,” Fletcher explains. “The mistakes and victories of our ancestors can give insight into our problems in the present day.”
Fletcher’s final thesis exhibition, “American Sisyphus,” will be on view in the Backspace Gallery at UW–Madison’s Art Lofts (111 N. Frances St.) from April 21-26. A reception, which is free and open to the public, will take place on Friday, April 25, from 5 to 8 p.m.
We asked Fletcher to share some insights about his exhibition. Following is an edited Q&A:
How did you come up with the title of your exhibition? The title, “American Sisyphus,” is in reference to themes I identified in the story surrounding the removal of Chamberlin Rock — a 42-ton boulder removed from UW’s campus in 2021 after petitions from two student groups due to its racist nickname. As I conducted interviews, I found that the story of Chamberlin Rock resembled the myth of Sisyphus in that there is a seemingly endless struggle to define goodness, and it’s a struggle that we as Americans have had to face over and over.
From the Civil War to the #MeToo movement, Americans have been faced with the question of how to best be our brother’s keeper. How do we determine what to do with Confederate monuments, or the legacies of celebrities that have been exposed as abusive? Who decides and who gets left out of the debate entirely? How do we rebuild, and can we ever fully reconcile our differences to create a just and flourishing society for everyone? It can be an exhausting question to unpack, but as Albert Camus suggests in his writings on the myth of Sisyphus, maybe the endless toil is actually part of the gift of life; something to run toward instead of avoid.
The show itself will consist of 400 miniature replicas of the boulder that viewers will be able to take or destroy according to their preference, and a full scale replica of the 42-ton boulder.
What inspired you to create this work? The inspiration for this body of work came from the UW Public History Project exhibition, “Sifting and Reckoning,” at the Chazen. It was there that I first heard about Chamberlin Rock and through eavesdropping on other students was able to identify the potency of the story. Immediately after hearing the story, I found myself identifying with proponents and opponents for the rock’s removal, but strangely I felt a kinship to the rock itself. Like this boulder, I (and I think a lot of us) have been caught in the crosshairs of a controversy that isn’t really about us but is instead about the people around us.
How did you create it?