Spring Photos: Opening Reception: Sound of Korea

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On Thursday, January 31, 2019 the opening reception for Sound of Korea, curated by Phoebe Junghee Shin, was held at the College of East Asian Studies Gallery at Mansfield Freeman Center. The exhibition presented five landscape photographs by Young-Il Kim as well as two single-channel videos. His photography became well-known when he did some official photography related to the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics.

The exhibition will be on display through Saturday, May 25, 2019.

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

 

Spring Photos: Opening Reception: Audible Bacillus

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On Tuesday, January 29, 2019 the Ezra and Cecile Zilkha Gallery hosted the opening reception for Audible Bacillus, an exhibition curated by Benjamin Chaffee, Associate Director of Visual Arts at the Wesleyan Center for the Arts.

Audible Bacillus posits a reconnection of our consciousness from the inside out, presenting our coexistence at a metaphoric register rather than representing or speaking for the beings within us. The works were presented not as practical scientific rhetoric but rather as investigations in their own right into a variety of themes including alternative epistemologies, the nature and source of volition, a breakdown of the boundary between self/other, the limits of our language(s), and into the radical care we need to sustain a future. Stromatolites, the fossilized remains of ancient cyanobacteria, the dominant species on the Earth billions of years ago, were also included in the exhibition.

The exhibition will be on display through Sunday, March 3, 2019.

Photos by Sara McCrea ‘21. Click here to view the full album on Flickr.

Spring Photos: This Between Shadow

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On Tuesday, January 22 and Wednesday, January 23, 2019 a 40-minute, intimate, immersive theater experience for ten audience members curated and crafted by the “Immersive Theater” Winter Session class and Visiting Instructor Tom Pearson, co-artistic director of Third Rail Projects, was shown at the Ezra and Cecile Zilkha Gallery. Because of the immersive nature of this piece, audiences stood for several minutes at a time over the course of the performance, and were also required to navigate several flights of stairs. Audiences were encouraged to wear comfortable shoes. Environments included water and chalk that could potentially have stained clothing or shoes.

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

 

 

 

Fall Photos: Javanese Puppet Play: Wayang Kulit

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On Friday, November 30, 2018 Winslow-Kaplan Professor of Music and puppeteer Sumarsam and the Wesleyan Gamelan Ensemble directed by Artist in Residence I.M. Harjito, with guest drummer Darsono, presented a Javanese wayang kulit, the puppet play employing intricately carved leather puppets, accompanied by an ensemble of tuned gongs, metallophones, two stringed fiddle, xylophone, drums, and vocalists.

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

Fall Photos: For the Love of Bach: Vol. 3

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On Thursday, November 29, 2018 Wesleyan student/faculty/staff/alumni/community collective AD HOC BACH presented the next installment of Johann Sebastian Bach’s cantatas: BWV 21, “Ich hatte viel Bekümmernis”

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

Fall Photos: Wayang Golek Puppet Play

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On Saturday, November 10, 2018 Yogyakarta Court Puppeteer Ki Gondo Suharno and the Court of Yogyakarta gamelan group, in collaboration with the Wesleyan Gamelan Ensemble, performed Wayang Golek, featuring three-dimensional puppets made of wood and cloth reenacting stories based on the Islamic story of Amir Hamzah.

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

Fall Photos: Symposium: Enacting Ethnicity and Nationalism in Indonesian Performing Arts

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On Saturday, November 10, 2018 His Excellency Sri Sultan Hamengkubuwono X of Indonesia gave the keynote address for a symposium focusing on the dynamic interaction between the state and the Javanese ethnic group. There are hundreds of traditional performing arts in Indonesia, each associated with a specific ethnic group/sub-group and the geographical region that is the ethnic group’s homeland (e.g., the performing arts of Batak, Minangkabau, Aceh, Sunda, Central Java, East Java, Banyuwangi, etc.). The history of the Indonesian archipelago is one of myriad inter-cultural encounters between these groups alternately defined by geography, ethnic identity, and political affiliation. The processes of hybridization that have resulted have profoundly influenced Indonesian culture and attempts to shape Indonesian national identity. The performing arts play a primary role in articulating these interacting cultural, social, and political forces.

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

 

Fall Photos: Music and Dance of Yogyakarta

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On Friday, November 9, 2018 in conjunction with a visit from Hamengkubuwono X, the Sultan of Yogyakarta in Indonesia, Wesleyan University hosted a performance by the court dancers and musicians of Yogyakarta, featuring the instruments of the Wesleyan gamelan, one of the finest sets of the instruments in the world—mostly gong and metallophone instruments made of bronze—usually housed on campus in World Music Hall.

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

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

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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: Becca Blackwell: They, Themself and Schmerm

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On Friday, October 5, 2018 New York City-based trans actor Becca Blackwell performed part classic standup comedy special, part teen zine vomit confessional, They, Themself and Schmerm (2015). The performance was a disturbingly hilarious personal tale of being adopted into a Midwestern religious family, trained to be a girl, molested, and plagued by the question, “How do I become a man and do I even want that?” The Connecticut premiere of this one-person show engaged in loving confrontation with the audience, asking what it truly means to be authentic.

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