On the last day of classes, Group 300 – a collaborative team of UNC students — performed Impossible Containment as part of its final project for a studio art major seminar taught by elin o’Hara slavick.
Performed on Polk Place on Dec. 3, Impossible Containment examines themes of security and sanitation within the context of the ongoing Ebola virus outbreak and the media coverage in America.
Around the contamination site, two students dressed as Secret Service agents to ward off the public, as fellow classmates wielding cameras approached curious bystanders for comments and questions. As the Hazmat-suited students collected more pinecones and seedpods — symbols of the virus — to be “sanitized,” other students dispensed more on the lawn.
“There are all these contradictions and paradoxes,” said slavick, Distinguished Term Professor of Art in UNC’s College of Arts and Sciences. “They’re dipping these pods in white paint as a sanitation system and placing them in this plastic-covered bamboo dome, which of course would do nothing.”
“It’s trying to fight nature with nature,” said John Neville ’15, of the dome, inspired by neo-futuristic architect Buckminster Fuller’s design. “We thought it’s nice to try to disguise something that is dangerous in real life as something as harmless as a magnolia pod or pinecone.”
In the middle of campus, passersby quickly noticed the group’s performance; some stopped and asked questions, as others snapped photos.
“Our intention is not to scare; our intention is to have people think and question,” said Neville.
Story, photos and video by Kristen Chavez ’13
