Art & Art History

Fall Photos: ICPP Public Lecture: Engaging Traditional Arts In Contemporary Curatorial Practice

by

On Thursday, November 8, 2018 Keng Sen Ong discussed the complex crossings between traditional performance and contemporary art practices. How can curators develop a coherent approach that engages rather than avoids traditional body practices when presenting contemporary art? Examining archives and the “re-performance” turn, as well as referencing the fields of architecture and restoration, Ong charted a field of potentialities, continuums and interventions.

Photos by Richard Marinelli. Click here to view the full album on Flickr.

Fall Photos: Opening Reception: Kahlil Robert Irving Exhibition

by

On Wednesday, September 26, 2018 Saint Louis-based multimedia artist Kahlil Robert Irving exhibited a recent body of work in his first solo exhibition in New England, including several pieces commissioned by the Ezra and Cecile Zilkha Gallery at Wesleyan. Working across a variety of material production methods, Irving examines the evolving relationship between symbols and power by bringing attention to the oppressive legacies of colonialism present in contemporary culture. His practice purposely challenges constructs around decorative arts, monuments, and the history of how race has been reinforced in America.
Associate Professor of Science in Society, African American Studies, and Sociology Anthony Hatch, who has written an essay for the exhibition, engaged Kahlil Robert Irving in a gallery talk about his work at 5pm during the opening reception.

Photos by Sandy Aldieri. Click here to view the full album on Flickr.

Fall Photos: Opening Reception: Chado — The Way of Tea

by
On Wednesday, September 12, 2018 the exhibition Chado: The Way of Tea explored the prominent role and significance of the tea ceremony as an art and spiritual practice in China and Japan. Objects displayed were selected from the College of East Asian Studies collection and loaned by tea enthusiasts in the Wesleyan community. Several media were represented, including ceramics, lacquer ware, bamboo, wood, iron, textiles, and calligraphy. In addition, photographs from National Geographic photographer Michael Yamashita ’71 were featured.
Photos by Sandy Aldieri. Click here to view the full album on Flickr.

Fall Photos: Common Moment: ON DISPLAY

by

On Friday, August 31, 2018 first year students in the Class of 2022 partnered with choreographer Heidi Latsky to create her installation ON DISPLAY on Andrus Field. Followed by a fire dancing performance by the student group Prometheus.
A deconstructed art exhibition/fashion show, ON DISPLAY is a commentary on the body as spectacle and on society’s obsession with body image. At its most concrete, ON DISPLAY is a human sculpture gallery bound by simple performance rules. More deeply, ON DISPLAY dares us to explore the idea of the gaze through a meditative, playful, embodied inquiry. In the installation, we are challenged to be in our simplest state, to commit to the exercise without judgement, to trust both our individuality and the group, and to experience profoundly the act of seeing and being seen.

Photos by Sandy Aldieri. Click here to view the full album on Flickr.

Spring Photos: Music Department Colloquium: One Sky Film Screening and Panel Discussion

by

On Tuesday, April 17, 2018 at a panel led by John Spencer Camp Professor of Music Neely Bruce, Chair and Professor of East Asian Studies, and Professor of Government and Environmental Studies Mary Alice Haddad, Assistant Professor of East Asian Studies and Government Joan Cho, University of Connecticut Professor of History Alexis Dudden, and invited scholars from Yale University discussed the current political conflict and U.S. and North Korean policy, as well as South Korean urban culture.

Photos by Sandy Aldieri of Perceptions Photography. Click here to view the full album on Flickr.

Artist Talk and Film Screening: Arnaldo Rodríguez Bagué

by

On Thursday, April 5, 2018 interdisciplinary artist and curator Arnaldo Rodríguez Bagué from San Juan, Puerto Rico presented an artist talk and screening of his recent film “Islxlsl: The Last Island on Earth”. His project considered the colonial Caribbean archipelago through, and in reaction to, the colonial sense of futurity in Roger Corman’s science-fiction B-movie “The Last Woman on Earth” (1960), which was filmed in Puerto Rico. The project’s focus took an ominous turn immediately after Hurricanes Irma and María in Puerto Rico and other Caribbean islands in September 2017 in light of the environmental, economic, and political aftermath.

Photos by Sandy Aldieri of Perceptions Photography. Click here to view the full album on Flickr.

Spring Photos: artzine: show and tell

by

On Wednesday, April 4, 2018 Houston, Texas-based artists Sarah Welch and James Beard discussed the zine making process during a 30 minute “show and tell” in their Reading Room Installation in the lobby of Olin Memorial Library. This featured their most recent zine publication created during their residency at Wesleyan.

Photos by Sandy Aldieri of Perceptions Photography. Click here to view the full album on Flickr.

Spring Photos: Opening Reception and Gallery Talk: Lêna Bùi – Proliferation

by

On Thursday, March 29, 2018 Proliferation brought contemporary art from Vietnam to the College of East Asian Studies Gallery at Mansfield Freeman Center for the first time. Drawing on her context of living in a rapidly changing country, works by Lêna Bùi ’07 ranged from abstract paintings to candid video, broadly examining the less obvious effects of development on the socio-political and cultural fabrics of the country, and specifically dealing with people’s negotiation with nature in various forms.

Photos by Sandy Aldieri of Perceptions Photography. Click here to view the full album on Flickr.

Spring Photos: A Modern Woman’s Wit

by

On Wednesday, March 28, 2018 A Modern Woman’s Wit was on display at the Wesleyan University Davison Art Center. This performance built on themes in the Slovak folktale A Woman’s Wit and was an interactive installation that combined projection, sound, textile, animation, and movement to explore modern feminist connections to historical texts. A Modern Woman’s Wit was a collaboration between costume designer/textile artist and Visiting Assistant Professor of Theater Cybele Moon and media artist Erica Larsen-Dockray.

Photos by Sandy Aldieri of Perceptions Photography. Click here to view the full album on Flickr.

Spring Photos: Manual Cinema: Ada/Ava

by

On Friday, February 23, 2018 Performance collective Manual Cinema created live film on stage, combining cinematic techniques, theatricality, handmade shadow puppetry, innovative sound, and live music. The Connecticut premiere of Ada/Ava (2013) used a story of the fantastic and supernatural to explore mourning and melancholy, self and other. Bereaved of her twin sister Ava, septuagenarian Ada solitarily marks time until a traveling carnival and a trip to a mirror maze plunges her into a journey across the thresholds of life and death.

Photos by Sandy Aldieri of Perceptions Photography. Click here to view the full album on Flickr.