This junior makes art out of cardboard boxes and color-changing lights
He’s trying to change your perception of race
Callum Lafrance wants to inspire more people to be curious and explore themselves through the use of cardboard and colors.
One night walking down Orchard Hill, Callum found a box and decided not to just leave it.
“The mind is like a box. And it’s fragile,” Callum said.
“And I really need to show people how explore their inner box.
“I took the box and had this idea of how I can make this an outlet for other people, as well as myself.”
Callum’s box in the works
Callum studied Biology at UVM for a year, and transferred to Holyoke Community College before transferring to UMass, studying English and Theater. He’ll be starring in Marie Antoinette this fall with the Theater Department.
“I painted this box on the inside with all of the primary colors. When you hold a color-changing light up to it, it changes the way all of the colors look and it totally shifts them…see?”
“I noticed this one day while looking at my Genetics book, and all of the helixes started changing color when my color-shifting light was doing it’s thing. I was like damn, I gotta do something with this.”
On the outside of the box, Callum plans to paint on words that express different themes like ethnicity, emotions, race, and views of human beings. On the inside, he plans to paint a giant all-seeing eye.
“There is so much color inside us, and sometimes we can appear to be just trash on the outside” he said.
Callum playing his didgeridoo (or didgeridon’t…?)
“Once it’s finished, I want to leave it somewhere on campus and see if someone is brave or curious enough to open it and think about what is inside. Kinda like how we’re all afraid to perceive ourselves, ya know?
“Also, when I found the box, it read ‘FRAGILE’ on it…I was like, that’s so accurate.
“I have a lot more time now, not as a science major” he said. “I can use my mind in other ways and do more shit”.
Callum wants change: “I really, really hope I can make people see that things are changing, and see who they really are. Learning is the most important thing in this life.”
Make sure to keep an eye out on campus for Callum’s perception changing box.