The FL3TCH3R Exhibit showcases the many topics the world is dealing with today.
The exhibit is located in the Reece Museum and done in memoriam for student Fletcher Dyer who passed away in 2009 at the age of 22.
“When we lost him, we all talked … and after the loss decided that a perfect way to commemorate and to honor his legacy would be to create a juried exhibit that focuses on social and political engaged art,” said Barbara Dyer, Fletcher Dyer’s Mother.
The FL3TCH3R Exhibit is a collection of pieces submitted by artists from all over the world. Each piece submitted is then judged by a juror. The juror for this year’s exhibit is Dr. Eric Avery.
It was Avery’s job to select the pieces he felt fit the theme for the FL3TCH3R Exhibit. Each submission for the exhibit had to come with the piece and a written statement.
“It’s up to the juror. A lot of it is clear what it is about. Some of them are more obscure; they’re not right in your face,” said ETSU professor Wayne Dyer, Fletcher Dyer’s father, discussing the process of selecting the pieces for the exhibit.
Each piece in this exhibit speaks to a topic that our media and world deals with every day. The pieces themselves cover a wide variety of matters, including gun violence, Ebola, sexual violence and many other events taking place around the world.
(Photograph by Tyler Wicks/East Tennessean)
“The juror selects it [the pieces] by the quality of the work, and he also has an opportunity to select it for any other reason. For example, that its making a statement,” Dyer said.
This annual exhibit was started in 2013 by Wayne Dyer, a professor of graphic design at ETSU, his wife Barbara and daughter Carrie, an ETSU alumni, in memoriam of their son and brother Fletcher Dyer.
Fletcher Dyer was an ETSU student studying graphic design who always wanted to get people to talk about the issues and events happening globally.
His parents spoke of how he pushed fellow classmates to talk about what was happening in the world.
“He always was frustrated because his peers, many times when he would bring up things that had happened in the world… wouldn’t even know it had happened and after knowing it had happened didn’t really have an opinion or a perspective about it,” Barbara Dyer said.
The pieces in the exhibit are done in many different forms of media, ranging from clay to painting to sculpting. Each piece is as unique as the story it tells.
This exhibit not only presents the topics and events discussed in each work of art, but it also commemorates Fletcher Dyer, his memory and that people should not ignore what is happening around them but to take notice of it.
“He’s here,” said Barbara Dyer. “I’m sure he’s here. Every year that we have the exhibit I can feel his presence and his energy. He would be stoked. He would be so excited.”
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