Despite frigid winds and moist grass, James Campian sat cross-legged, in only his red underwear—briefs—remaining stone faced against the stares of normal passers-by, only showing his amusement by smiling at his friends’ taunts.

In the Library Quad, his teeth chattering, skin erupted in goose bumps, Campian suffered on Friday against the elements—all for the sake of an art project.

The project was for his Contemporary Art class taught by Stephen Eskilson where he had the choice to either write a 5-page essay about an artist talked about in class or do an art piece himself and write about that.

He chose the latter and called it his “Sitting Piece.”

“I wanted to make an actual piece and write about it, so I chose that because I wanted to connect to an audience,” Campian said. “And even by them just seeing me and seeing what I was doing, that’s how I connected with them.”

Campian said he is unsure if his other students in his class will choose to go down the same avenue as him.

“(The piece) isn’t due for another week or two,” he said.

Campian said he combined a lot of different elements in his piece including fluxus, performance and minimalism art concepts.

“Being kind of half-naked out there, was influenced by a lot of minimalist artists—being your bare self,” Campian said.

The piece was not about his experience, Campian said but those around him.

“What I was trying to do was get that tiny bit of edginess from people that walked by me,” Campian said. “I wanted them to see it and say ‘Oh that’s weird.’”

The art project also became about the physical connection between the artist and other students.

“People came up to me, painted on me, they jumped over me,” Campian said.

For the most part, Campian said he was surprised by the overall lack of reactions he got from people.

“It was almost like people saw me, but they almost didn’t respond,” Campian said. “I thought people were going to come up and be like ‘what are you doing,’ but it was almost like it was a norm.”

The lack of response might also have to do with the atmosphere of a college campus, he said.

‘There are people on campus that do things that are kind of bizarre so what I was doing was kind of accepted,” Campian said.

Campian had to remain silent throughout his project, which occurred from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.—a time period Campian picked himself.

But, his piece did come with some bumps along the way as law enforcement, a staff member and the weather made him break his self-made, written rules.

“A counselor came and I guess she called the police, too, just to make sure that I was OK,” he said. “Then the police officer came and asked me ‘Oh, is this for art?’ ‘Yes’ and she immediately left.”

Another catalyst was the cold temperature.

“(The weather) was uncomfortable,” he said. “I didn’t want to move, but I (had) to because my legs were cramping up really badly and I had to stretch and move. A lot of it had to do with endurance.”

Campian said he hopes he did not offend others with his public display.

“I wanted to make something that almost everybody could necessarily be a part of if they wanted to,” Campian said.

Nike Ogunbodede can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected].