DEMO Project presents “Of This Place” from artists Rachel Jennings, second-year MCAD MFA candidate, and Corrin Smithson McWhirter. The artists developed independent mixed media installation works that were responsive to the site of DEMO Project and presented a collaborative crossover effort in the gallery. 

The artists, each with ties to Springfield, have looked to local influences to steer their work for the exhibit. Both Jennings and McWhirter relied on the consideration of impermanence as a common core — while also looking to divergent sources to inform their respective works. Rachel Jennings considers the changing historical landscape of the region as a point of departure for her work. Mural drawings in the space, combined with elements of collage and installation, create a sense of a fleeting and nostalgic – and impermanent – landscape. Corrin Smithson McWhirter hones her focus on the site of DEMO Project, a bungalow-turned-art-gallery, and utilizes the domestic remnants as a pronounced setting for her work. Through texture mapping, she mines the original characteristics of the site, both physical and historical.

Rachel Jennings is a Dawson, Illlinois native. She received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 2012, and is currently a Master of Fine Arts candidate at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. Corrin Smithson McWhirter lives in Springfield and serves as Gallery Director for the Springfield Art Association. She studied sculpture and installation at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design and received a Bachelors of Fine Arts from York University.

The exhibition runs from Friday, February 5 through Saturday, March 5. DEMO Project is open for the duration of the exhibit on Saturday afternoons from 1:00pm-4:00pm, or by appointment.