From March 3 until April 11, the Iona College Council on the Arts presented “Under the Rug: A Look at Institutional Dishonesty.” Curated by Erica Harney, the exhibit featured a wide array of artwork all aimed at investigating scandals and corruption that have all been “swept under the rug.”

Showcased in the Brother Kenneth Chapman Gallery in the Iona College Arts Center, pieces ranged from basic painting and sculpture to audio-visual statements and interactive displays. “Under the Rug” displayed work from 15 artists across the United States and Ireland covering institutional scandals. Topics included the Watergate scandal, the more recent Penn State sex abuse allegations and genocide in Rwanda, among others.

Some of the pieces presented in the gallery stood apart from others. For example, William Snyder III created an instillation in remembrance of the lives lost in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. The piece consisted of 2500 books stacked in 100 wooden crates. Each of the 800,000 pages represented one person who was killed in Rwanda over the 100-day slaughter.

A collage created by Corey Compa for the exhibit featured the 1994 story of figure skater Tanya Harding. Harding hired a man to attack rival Nancy Kerrigan, forcing Kerrigan to withdraw from competition that Harding went on to win. Compa’s piece displayed the suffering of Kerrigan out of Harding’s envy.

Harney’s piece in the gallery was a painting that depicted the story of the Penn State sex abuse scandal that dominated the news recently. The oil painting depicts Mike McQueary and Joe Paterno among a blurred crowd at a football game. The two are the only ones in the piece who are discernible, no doubt because of the way they hid what was happening at the school.

One of the larger and more striking pieces in the gallery was a steel sculpture created by Steven Rolf Kroeger. His creation highlights the corruption that can be found within government and law enforcement by turning a police car into a cockroach ready for action.

Other artists featured in “Under the Rug” included Bryan Billingsey, John Bowman, Sandra Camomile, Cindy DeFelice, Lucy McKenna, Ted Mikulski, Amy Moosman, Jeff Siegel, Randy Williams and Michael Yoder. All of these talented individuals contributed a different perspective to the chilling gallery.

Not every display covered a specific event, however. Some of the pieces were far more abstract, focusing on the pain and repercussions of institutional dishonesty rather than the actual events themselves. While this is an important angle to explore, these pieces tended to be more difficult to understand from a layman’s perspective.

Overall, the exhibit brilliantly captured the horrors of cover-ups and scandals. Harney brought together a collection of artwork that covered both internationally known subjects to pieces that displayed a more intimate knowledge of institutional dishonesty.

Although the exhibit is over now, there is still a chance to view some of the pieces on the Iona College website under the Council of the Arts page.