Cholnoky, a studio art intern at the College, said that her brothers also provided the inspiration for her art exhibit on display in Barrows Rotunda from March 30 to April 18 a large blue fort entitled "This Is My Fort Oh Who Cares."
"Ask any student what their favorite rotunda display was and they won't remember," Cholnoky said. "My favorite interaction was watching two guys walk by [the exhibit]. One said, I'm not sure I really get this one,' and the other said, It's an igloo!'"
Cholnoky had been fascinated by the glass cylinder of the rotunda because it provided such an open and vulnerable space. She wondered what she could put in that space to transition from feeling vulnerable to protected, she said.
"My mind went to being a kid, when our house would lose power," Cholnoky said. "It would be like the apocalypse, and my brothers and I would make forts. I was thinking of what a 22-year-old's fort would look like."
The fort, like all of Cholnoky's work, is an eclectic blend of materials and colors.
"As an Internet-age kid, I can't imagine focusing on just one material," Cholnoky said.
Most of her inspiration arises from worst-case scenarios that play out in her mind, she said. Once, while eating breakfast, Cholnoky visualized a scene in which oatmeal made her sick and a gruesome series of events ensued. The oatmeal-eating experience inspired one of her particularly lurid pieces that features images of people with missiles in their mouths.
The elements of destruction in her work largely reflect a national obsession with fear, she said.
"Our lives have gotten boring," Cholnoky said. "Everything is handed to us and we sit at desks all day. This is why people get drunk, watch porn, take drugs to feed that adrenaline we're not getting."
For Cholnoky, art functions as her way of feeling an adrenaline rush and exploring humanity's current state of affairs.
"I'm making art because I have questions," Cholnoky said. "The art is an investigation of these questions."
In addition to using bright colors, mixed media and macabre images, Cholnoky incorporates text into many of her pieces.
"I get sentences or phrases stuck in my head," she said. "Sometimes they mean something, sometimes it's just a tactile thing. I like the feeling of the words."
"Who cares?" for example, is a phrase she has incorporated into many pieces.
"The phrase challenged itself in a couple different ways that really interested me," Cholnoky said, explaining how she sees the phrase as simultaneously proud, self-destructive and meaningless.
Cholnoky's work was recently displayed in the Nexus Art Gallery in Philadelphia and in the Seattle Erotic Art Festival.
The latter piece was originally intended as a lighthearted departure from Cholnoky's usual style.
"I thought it'd be a great exercise, to make an erotic piece," Cholnoky said. "Because my work is so not erotic it's death and destruction in a cartoony way."
Cholnoky's plans for the future include an exhibit this summer featuring her art alongside work by fellow intern Max Heiges '10.
"Max and I challenge each other a lot," Cholnoky said. "It'll be a really exciting show."
