Forty-eight Oberlin students traveled to Cleveland last Saturday to see “The Hedge” exhibition by artist Corin Hewitt, OC ’93, at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA). Hewitt installed “The Hedge” during the month of January with the help of College seniors Thomas Huston, Hannah Jones, Sarah Konowitz and Lenora Rigoni and College junior Katie Rotman, through a Winter Term mini-course offered by the College.

Saturday’s trip consisted of two hours of free time for students to explore MOCA’s exhibits and the Cleveland Museum of Art, followed by an afternoon poetry reading by Anselm Berrigan, John Coletti and Dana Ward. These poets were chosen by Hewitt to complement his installation. An ensuing question and answer session between Hewitt and four of the students who worked with him in January, which was then opened up to the larger audience, sparked a lengthy discussion on the genesis of Hewitt’s work at MOCA, as well as how he envisioned his work would be perceived.

Professor of Modern and Contemporary Art Sarah Hamill probed Hewitt on the lack of participatory drive that the installations provide the audience, to which Hewitt explained that he likes to bring his own agency to the art and would like to give his viewers the same opportunity.

In the Q&A session, Hewitt explained where his inspiration for the installation came from: While working as a contractor and plumber in his mid-20s, Hewitt learned how to build and make a variety of things. He witnessed how plumbers worked behind the walls of buildings, which shaped how he envisioned “The Hedge.” Hewitt aimed to recreate generations of labor compressed against open, luxurious spaces in his installation, just as he had seen behind the walls of ordinary buildings.

The five Oberlin students who worked with Hewitt in January helped to install the installations found in the walls of the museum. Hewitt created a space within the museum that acted as his studio for the duration of the exhibit, where he placed found objects alongside casts of everyday objects like toast and makeup.

“We constructed large frames, built walls, cut walls and helped put parts of Corin’s work together in the cut-out parts of the walls [of the museum],” Rigoni said.

The students who participated in the mini-course not only worked on the installation process, but were also introduced to museum staff and included in meetings about Hewitt’s exhibition. The mini-course provided students a firsthand look at how museums function, in addition to the experience of working with a contemporary artist.

“Working for MOCA provided great exposure to the Cleveland art scene,” Rotman said. “Detroit, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Columbus and Toledo all have interesting post-industrial art scenes and amazing contemporary museums and galleries. We should be getting more exposure to the art that is being produced around us.”