Hampshire Professor’s Art is Big in Boston

Five College art and technology professor John Slepian’s latest work is big in Boston, in a very literal way.

Slepian’s “*sigh*” towers over the South Boston cityscape as part of “Art on the Marquee,” a collaboration between Boston Cyberarts and the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority. Developed to present public art on the 80 foot tall, seven screen LED marquee outside the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center, this is the first of what is intended to be an ongoing display set between the marquee’s regular advertising and programming. For Slepian, it was an interesting challenge.

“I wanted something that gave the sign a personality, and reflects what it’s like to be the sign,” said Slepian, who was one of six artists chosen for the inaugural display. “I wanted to express world weariness in the simplest possible way.”

“*Sigh*” is described on the Boston Cyberarts website as “a 3D animated face (that) appears over a ‘color bar’ test pattern. The face inhales deeply, pouts its lips and exhales a deep sigh—a facial gesture recognizable to anyone that’s ever had a hard day. The title is also a reference to the ‘Peanuts’ character, Charlie Brown, whose response to life’s vagaries was often an exasperated, world-weary sigh.”

The marquee can be seen for over half a mile in many directions, and over 100,000 pedestrians and motorists are estimated to pass by it every day. Slepian’s former student and recent Hampshire graduate Jacob Mazonson 06F assisted him on the project.

“Jake was a big help with technical matters and aesthetic suggestions. I wouldn’t have been able to do it within the timeline we had without him,” said Slepian. “He was kind of the perfect person to assist with this.”

Slepian noted that many of his past students have assisted him both during and after graduating from Hampshire, and he is always excited to see their work progress. That includes his current students, who will soon begin showing their Division III projects.

“I have some great Div IIIs this semester, and I’m looking forward to their shows,” he said.

In January Slepian exhibited some of his latest work at the Axiom Center for New and Experimental Media in Jamaica Plain, and is currently drawing a series of cartoons based on Sol Lewitt’s seminal piece of writing, “Sentences on Conceptual Art.”


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