Art Lab Fort Collins hosted the three-day public art show, “Expanding Into Space,” for Colorado State University photo image-making students from April 25-27, which explored the relationship between photography and three-dimensional spaces.

Nine students who are enrolled in ART 331: Photo Image Making III were expected to prepare installation artworks for their final projects of the semester, all of which pushed the physical boundaries of photography.

The nine student artists in “Expanding Into Space” were prompted to contextualize interdisciplinary artworks with fundamental photography concepts for their final project of the semester, which they completed over a two-week work period. The resulting exhibition highlighted the way individuals interact with photographs and how engaging with photographs affected them.

Many of those enrolled in ART 331 are third-year students with little experience installing work in a gallery setting. “Expanding Into Space” taught these students how to hang their artworks in a gallery setting for the first time, helping better prepare them for their senior thesis projects.

“Typically, students don’t have experience hanging work until they’re forced in that last semester to figure it out,” said Justin Carney, assistant professor of photography. “So doing this, you get the students some experience being in a show that they can then take into their final year.”

On the opening day of the exhibition, many of the participating photo image-making students were present to discuss their interdisciplinary photography projects with viewers.

“I love it. … Every work is so immersive, and I just love engaging with art and then reading the reflection of the artist.” –TJ Tomlin, exhibition viewer

Providing students a real-world audience at Art Lab Fort Collins served as an opportunity to gauge the interactivity of photographic projects. For many of the students, as first-time exhibition artists, the event expanded their skill sets and revealed a deeper understanding of the function of photography.

The gallery students to grasp the principles of photography by engaging with personal narratives in a uniquely sculptural manner. From Fey Brundige’s cyanotypes hanging on the ceiling as an alternative representation of portraiture to Macie Jungmann’s projector-lit ink prints that call attention and the confusing mental experience of dissociation, the installations on display varied widely in medium, form and process.

“I feel like the actual point of a portrait is to learn about the person the portrait is of,” Brundige said. “So what better way is there than to go into their space and see what is important to them? All of the photos were taken in the person’s bedroom, like, on their bed. It’s all the things that have some sort of importance to their life.”

Pieces like Walking Past Your Street by Emily Congdon and Passing Through by Gibson Sisson encouraged viewers to engage with the artworks by looking closely, as both projects feature miniature forms that require close examination. Congdon’s Walking Past Your Street points to the social presuppositions people make about each other based on internal experiences, and Sisson’s Passing Through critiques the lack of interaction between students passing each other as they walk outside, with miniature 3D figures made of photographs.

“With this one, I was focusing more on having a photographic quality because I didn’t actually take any pictures for this,” Congdon said. “But I feel like each window in itself is a photograph. … When you’re driving past an apartment building, you only see in the window for a split second, especially if you drive pretty fast, and then that’s all you have.”

Miniatures such as Congdon’s Walking Past Your Street and Sisson’s Passing Through were engaging for families who brought children to view the exhibition, as well as the interactive piece that Hannah Redmon created as part of her installation, Corrupted Reflections, which explored the role fear plays in people’s lives. Redmon’s project included shattered and rearranged mirrors covered in handwriting, with one mirror that asked viewers to write their own fears on it.

“I love it,” said TJ Tomlin, an exhibition viewer. “Every work is so immersive, and I just love engaging with art and then reading the reflection of the artist.

Reach Sofia Raikow at entertainment@collegian.com or on Twitter @CSUCollegian.