PCA&D Students Art at Hershey Gardens

Twenty-six pieces created by students at the Pennsylvania College of Art and Design in Lancaster will be on display in a summer art exhibit at Hershey Gardens. The exhibit, titled Four Surreal Seasons, marks the first collaboration between Hershey Gardens and PCA&D. It will be displayed starting Friday, May 23, through Sunday, September 28, 2014.

Robert Hochgertel, chair of the Illustration Department at PCA&D conceived the project with the help of fellow faculty member Jonathan Yeager. The idea for the style of the pieces came from a historic art form known as “Exquisite Corpse” dating back to the French impressionists of the 1920’s. In this form, different artists would work together to create a figure, but each worked without knowing what the others were creating. One artist designed the head, another the body, a third the upper legs, and another artist would create the lower legs and feet. Only after the individual artists had created their own work would they see what the others had created and put the pieces together.

Similarly, the student figures are created in four sections, with each section representing a different season. The head represents spring, the midriff, summer; the upper portion of the legs, autumn, and the lower legs and feet represent winter.

The exhibit is located on the pathway beside the popular Children’s Garden, and near the Butterfly House, which also opens on May 23.