What usually comes to mind when you think "art opening"? The snooty, collagen-injected women who hold champagne glasses and titter softly about who’s dating whom and what European locale is the hotspot for the summer? Not at this show. The brooding chain-smoking artist dressed in all black in the corner, not-so-subtly eavesdropping on reactions to his "magnum opus?" Hardly. The snooty museum curator, skulking around and twirling his "petit moustache" while adjusting his handkerchief, calmly referencing William Blake and Kandisky in esoteric discussions of art? You won’t find him here. Before seeing the Pomona Organization of Student Artists’ show ‘Dis/Claiming Sense: Contrast This!’, break down your stereotype of an art opening piece by piece. Held Friday, October 5 in the Mudd-Blaisdell courtyard, the opening of the show featured an improvisational dance troupe, very loud techno music, and students in jeans and t-shirts. Not to mention free food and, most importantly for some, a keg.

"Dis/Claiming Sense: Contrast This!" was organized by Catherine Kernodle ’02 and Lilas Harley ’03. As PoSA’s new co-chairs, they gathered the art pieces by advertising around campus and in the art department. The group chose the theme based on its appropriateness to the terrorist attacks.

"I wanted the art-action group [on campus] involved, and something that tastefully alluded to September 11 but didn’t relegate [the show] to September 11. [The show] was open to all," Kernodle said. Kernodle got involved with PoSA because she lived in Blaisdell her freshman year, and often visited the shows.

The PoSA gallery is set in a small room off the side of Gibson Hall, and the show featured pieces in a variety of mediums. Sara Lieber ’03 covered a wall and a half and two freestanding paper tubes with repeating photocopies of Marlboro cigarettes in a piece entitled "Liberty Heights." Set in a parallel pattern, the photocopies of cigarettes can’t help but serve as a chilling reminder of the Twin Towers. "Sara Lieber’s piece is amazing," Kernodle said. "Her piece speaks to September 11 and to point/counterpoint."

On an adjacent wall to Lieber’s piece, Dru Hilty ’02 presented a vastly different perspective with her painting "55 Days of Darkness." In it, 55 brightly colored and intricately designed boxes at the top of the canvas fade into a grey-brown at the bottom of the painting. Georgia Hartman’s "Play with Lines" works with negative space to go deeper than what originally meets the eye. "The sparse lines [in Hartman’s piece] remind of me of Chinese art in a modern way," said Alex N. Smith ’03.

A truly mixed-media piece, Molly Rourkin’s "Paper Doll", involves safety pins, a hanging paper cutout, dog chains, and a bright red background. Kernodle included a charcoal sketch of herself called "Thinking of Myself on 9-14-01" that is striking both in its simplicity and starkness. Jessica Drenk ‘02’s "Passages" is a seemingly simple concept–a stack of books with a hole cut through the middle, allowing the observer to see through the books. However, the reactions to the piece were quite intricate. "It’s got a lot of different meanings," said Josh Pasek ’05. "It makes books into stories and objects."

Just outside the brightly lit gallery was wild dancing on the grass. Janne Olsen ’02, a member of the 5-college dance troop Functionslust since her sophomore year, loved the casualness of the atmosphere.

"It felt great. It’s fun to dance on the grass, to take stationary artforms and put them together with movement," she said. Though Functionslust is improvisational, it has a certain theme in mind that it carries throughout all the movements. "There were elements of being out of balance, keeping eye contact, and falling down [in the PoSA performance]," Olsen said. They began inside, pretending to be regular onlookers then falling hard on the ground and either laughing or pretending to be embarrassed. Eventually, the individuals came together.

Standing around and taking in the raucous atmosphere, Derek Bass ’02 admitted that he "came for the beer, stayed for the art." Bass also lived in Blaisdell his freshman year, and was drawn to PoSA shows originally because of their close proximity to his dorm room. However, he’s continued coming because friends have pieces in the show, and because he enjoys seeing art in a different way. "[The PoSA show] is wonderful. The music and the refreshments take away from the stuffiness," he said.

Perhaps because it’s so different than "normal" art shows, the opening was not unanimously hailed. Rick Berggreen ’04 thinks the show could have been bigger. "It would have been nice to display more pieces…[though] I’m not big on this kind [of art]," he said. Furthermore, Berggreen thought that the loud music was a hinderance rather than a help to the art-viewing experience. "To me, the music is a detriment to the art. The art itself would be fine," Berggreen said.

Perhaps loud rock music, student art, interpretive dance, and free food aren’t your idea of a good time on a Friday night. If it does sound like your cup of tea, PoSA has shows throughout the year. The next one is a bathroom-themed show and it’s scheduled for November. "Dis/Claiming Sense; Contrast This!" will be open during gallery hours which PoSA will advertise in the very near future. Of course, there’s only free alcohol at the openings.