From Ceramics, to Photography, to Creative Aspirations, many art classes exist here at Normal West. Students in these courses are encouraged and assigned many creative projects, meant to flex their artistic muscles.

For instance, for the past 4 or so years, Sculpture 2, taught by Mr. Ali Akyuz, has used empty lockers to make installation art.

“Installation art is a vast and relatively new media…” Akyuz explains, “instead of making an object, it attempts to transform spaces to create a curated experience for the viewer.”

This idea for a project came about by happenstance.

“The whole project started when a student had finished a project and said, ‘I don’t really want this,’” Akyuz explains, “[I said] why don’t you just hang it in one of the empty lockers and then eventually, somebody’s going to come open the locker and see your artwork and be surprised.”

From that initial idea came the spark of a dedicated project.

Students choose an emotion that they want to evoke in the viewer and then create and theme the art around that.

The choice of using a locker was made for a variety of reasons, one of which being pragmatism.

“As a teacher you have to be resourceful, materials cost money and the lockers are plentiful,” Akyuz explains.

Another reason for the use of lockers was their symbolism.

Akyuz described how emblematic lockers are to the high school experience. He also explained that lockers are more available to be seen by other students.

The projects will be up until mid to late April.