Aiyana McClinton’s Northrop Award-winning piece on display in hearth of Chapman Hall

by Abbey McDonald, Clark Honors College Communications 

A few weeks ago, on May 29, two women hammered six nails directly into the wall of the newly renovated Chapman Hall. It happened in plain sight of administration, between the south entrance and room 102.

They were Sonja Dahl, the fibers studio manager at the School of Art and Design, and Aiyana McClinton, the Northrop Award winning student whose art will adorn the front lobby until the spring of 2021.

The Keena Shaw Northrop Dean Art Award was established in 2013. Northrop graduated in 1950 from the School of Architecture and Allied Arts with a degree in Fine/Applied Arts. She did some of her coursework in Chapman Hall, using the project drawers in what is now the Clark Honors College Library to store her work.

The award will be offered for the next 10 years for a student to produce a work of art to install in Chapman Hall for one year.

The three textile pieces took an hour to arrange, and McClinton carefully fluffed and preened each one. Her plan for its presentation had been stewing since spring break, when she was notified that her work had been selected.

“I went and looked at the space and thought, ‘they’re going to look so perfect!’” she recalled.

McClinton used cotton, yarn, raw and refined wool for most of the black and white pieces. She also dangled warp ends from its edges that her classmates cut from finished loom projects. Its variety of materials combine with eclectic weaving techniques to make the installation a treat for the eyes, and soft to the touch.

Though the three pieces have their own personalities, with McClinton’s favorite part being the tuft of wool at the top of the right piece, they all coexist in harmony.

“I like to think of them as triplets. They’re all sort of interconnected and communicating with each other, and I like to think that they’re sort of relying on each other,” she said.