ARTS: Rhizome an example of interdisciplinary campus works
By Dora Guerrero
Assistant Editor
Published Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024
After three months of hard work and more than 100 volunteers, Assistant Professor of art Crystal Wagner unveiled her multimedia installation Rhizome at TAMIU. Wagner met with students and volunteers twice a week this spring and on some occasions, they even met daily.
“Seeing the community respond so powerfully to a moment of creativity and art is the only reward that I could ever ask for,” Wagner said of the entire process. “I am so grateful to be able to bring my creativity to a community of amazing people.”
Rhizome art installation, as seen April 12 at the entrance to the Center for the Fine and Performing Arts.
The artistic event was led by Wagner, who specializes in installation art. She began at Texas A&M International University in the spring as a visiting assistant professor and was recently hired as a full-time assistant professor.
Assistant Professor of art Crystal Wagner poses for a photo after the unveiling of the Rhizome art installation on April 12 at the Center for the Fine and Performing Arts.
While the project was overseen by Wagner and the visual arts section of the Department of Fine and Performing Arts, this installation was an interdisciplinary collaboration of several TAMIU departments. Participants from the studies of philosophy, biology, music, dance, humanities and creative writing added their own expertise to the project. The process of the installation also included a printmaking workshop and a Bead-a-thon, which were both open to the public.
Professors like Assistant Professor of dance Timothy Rubel were approached by Wagner to participate in the installation.
“[The installation] became a big departmental thing,” Rubel recalled.
During the April 12 unveiling of the installation there was a mixture of acting, poetry, dance—both modern and Ballet Folklorico—and music performances.
With the speed of the project, faculty worked alongside Wagner to finalize it.
“Everything happened really quickly,” Rubel said. “We rehearsed for a couple of hours every day and the music was still in process, so I didn’t get the first track until our fourth rehearsal. So, we were just going off the concept of Rhizome.”
The public response to the installation was outstandingly positive from the public, Wagner said. For the duration of the event, the Center for the Fine and Performing Arts was full of students, faculty and community members.
Wagner wanted to thank the volunteers who arrived each week to help and allow the project to be accomplished. Wagner’s ending message regarding Rhizome was, “Worlds are built with community, and this is definitely a community effort.”
