Orange Coast College’s ‘Solo Squadron’ Crash Lands at Doyle Arts Pavilion

Orange Coast College’s Frank M. Doyle Arts Pavilion and artist Kiel Johnson have come together to bring a grand scale art project titled “Solo Squadron” to Coast. Johnson collaborated with nearly 300 art students from OCC and Irvine Valley College to create a 20-foot crop duster airplane using cardboard, paint and paper.

Johnson — whose work is part of the “Big Idea” exhibit currently on display at the Doyle Arts Pavilion — is based in Los Angeles and has built a reputation for utilizing cardboard to pay homage to objects from a bygone era, including Polaroid cameras, musical instruments and covered wagons. Johnson has been creating large-scale collaborative projects with institutions around the world, tailoring the art produced to the history of each location; OCC’s airplane is meant to be a nod to Orange County’s agricultural roots, and will be part of a featured artist exhibit at the Orange County Fair in 2017.

“This is by far the largest collaborative art project we have created with our students,” said OCC’s gallery director Steve Radosevich. “The creativity and craftsmanship of hundreds of artists combined with the vision and leadership of Kiel Johnson has produced a provocative sculpture on an epic scale.”

Over a two-week period, advanced OCC sculpture students created a steel and wood armature for the airplane, while art students from various classes designed and built the details out of cardboard. “The cardboard gave a freedom to students because it’s not precious, so they were encouraged to be playful, and really creative things happen when you are playful,” Kim Garrison, curator of the Arts Pavilion said. “As they were building the plane, a story began to emerge about who the pilot was. That was probably the most interesting part of the process.”

OCC’s art department also teamed up with the College’s film program to create a documentary about the making of the plane, including its “crash landing” at the Arts Pavilion. The documentary will be shown at a free reception on Oct. 27 at the gallery to celebrate the completion of the project. The reception will be held from 5 p.m. until 7:30 p.m. and the public is invited to attend.

Solo Squadron will be on display until Dec. 3. The Doyle Arts Pavilion is open from 11 a.m. until 5 p.m. on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays, and from 11 a.m. until 7 p.m. on Wednesdays. For more information visit www.orangecoastcollege.edu/artspavilion