Campus Resources | Saint Joseph's University
Boland Hall Gallery features student photography from the past 10 years. Students worked in large format, alternative processes and traditional 35mm shooting and darkroom printing. Their prints show the wide breadth of styles and processes taught in the Art and Art History Department at SJU.
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Social Fabric
Maurene Cooper and Eric Kunsman
August 22 – October 21, 2022
Artist Talk: September 22 @12:30 in person and on zoom
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Merion Hall Gallery presents Social Fabric, a photography exhibition featuring Helen Maurene Cooper’s The Caregivers and Eric Kunsman’s Before Noon; two photography projects that explore lives and relationships that bond communities. Based in Philadelphia, PA and Rochester, NY respectively, the artists share their experiences living in neighborhoods that bring people together and face challenges as one.
Helen Maurene Cooper’s The Caregivers is an ongoing social document of the photographer’s neighbors exploring caregiving among queer and heteronormative families during and after a time of self-isolation. The project began as a way for Cooper to meet and interact with her neighbors during the COVID-19 lockdown. After having moved back to Philadelphia from Chicago, Cooper found that she had not gotten to know her neighbors despite how densely populated her neighborhood is. During quarantine in March 2020, she saw an opportunity to meet these people by setting up her camera outside her home studio offering portraits to anyone willing to collaborate. By nature of many Philadelphians and because of the isolating conditions of the pandemic, people who passed her were “outgoing, forward, and nosy” enough to approach her and ask about the project.
Using an 8×10 camera and a photographic wet-plate collodion process, Cooper took a series of portraits for each couple or family that worked with her. During photography sessions, Cooper bonded with her community through discussions of parenting, caring for aging family members, and the difficulties of doing all this and more through a pandemic. From the start of COVID-19, the physical and mental demands for caretakers, especially women, became more extreme than they previously were. Through stories of nurturing and vulnerability from the people that Cooper photographed during this challenging time, the shared human experience of caretaking is revealed.
For the future of this project, Cooper hopes to rephotograph her neighbors over the years as a means to share what caretaking has been like for families both during and after COVID-19.
Eric Kunsman’s Before Noon captures the hopefulness found within communities living in areas with high poverty rates. Photographing people before the day has set in, as the title suggests, Kunsman finds how a fresh morning can bring positivity no matter what the situation.
Before Noon is a project stemming from his previous work, Felicific Calculus, which looked at the socioeconomic position of Rochester, New York and aimed to confute the negative stereotypes placed on it. In this new collection, Kunsman focuses on the people of Rochester and other poverty-stricken cities with a similar goal. Living and working in the city himself, the photographer approached neighbors he’s known for years as well as people he’s never talked to in hopes of showing how his community is happier than people make them out to be.
Hearing how people talk down about poor cities without having ever lived in one struck a chord with Kunsman. He describes how truly optimistic his neighbors can be and how their sense of community is invaluable. “Some of these people are a whole lot happier than the well-off neighbors I had in the suburbs,” he says. Whether it’s fixing someone’s broken down car or setting up a memorial for a lost one, these people look out for one another and find hope in unexpected ways.
Dee Feuda ’25, Gallery Exhibition Research Assistant
Maurene Cooper – “The Caregivers”
The Caregivers addresses the emotional and physical labor of parenthood and romantic partnership in my community during a global pandemic.
Using an 8×10 camera, the wet plate collodion process (ambrotypes) and the sidewalk in front of my home studio, I make portraits in public space of families and lovers.
Over a series of multiple sessions, I collaborate my subjects to tell intimate stories of how they nurture, support and protect each other. Through gesture, expression, the placement of bodies and the manipulation of perspective, I depict a wide range of queer and heteronormative families who live within walking distance of my front stoop. I use these portraits as a means to explorer caregiving not as a given role for a women but with the context of queer and feminist thought that sees this labor as a radical act.
The work weaves together a narrative of world-building, using public space and the politics of family and intimacy during a period of self-isolation.
Eric Kunsman – “Before Noon”
Before Noon is a new series that explores the power of hopefulness of the people in cities with extremely high poverty rates, the idea is that every individual has the whole day ahead of them before noon and a clean slate prior to the weight of the world setting in on any given day. Often, the weight of the world can take away the smiles one may have in the morning or lead to individuals relying on other means to help forget about that weight and feel carefree.
I want to show each individual’s hope, and community rather than the blight and misfortune many photographers focus on when not engaging with one’s surroundings. Yes, some photographs show the deterioration of the cities I am photographing, but those images do not contain individuals. Those images set the tone of the perseverance of the individuals living in these cities throughout the United States.
Isabella Africa, Jayne Baran, Hunter Barkhorn, Rachel Cosgriff, Grace Coyle, Sophia Dell’Arciprete, Patricia Neal
Nasir Chandler, Rebekah Fiori, Grace Gallagher, Annie Meko, Keely Nilan, Diego Ramirez, Caitlin Thiel, Elizabeth Wash
This organic kitchen set, titled An Open Eye Into Nature, combines elements of nature and the external world with ceramic objects that are used in a household environment. My idea for this series came about while walking through campus and noticing the beautiful trees, various textures, and delicate flowers. I simultaneously saw many students traveling to class, heads down, staring at their phone screens. Feeling as though no one else was observing the details of the environment, I wanted to make this project a reflection of the beauty I saw while also creating functional objects. I feel transforming nature into something functional will make people notice and admire it more. While clay is the main medium of this series, other materials were used in creating the surface. Leaves from the campus garden and surrounding SJU area were used to create imprints on some of the vessels. Other pieces in the collection include handmade elements that add to the surface design. Examples of these include leaves, a mushroom, and coils to represent branches. The collection as a whole, aims to encompass all the different colors, textures and shapes of nature while working together as a cohesive set.
My series, It’s Never Too Late to Have a Happy Childhood, consists of three shrines built to explore themes of vulnerability in grief, personal growth and its ties to spirituality. I lost my father in the summer of 2020 and have used this series to document my personal growth through loss. I am exploring the idea of spiritualizing one’s own life and experiences and what that does to one’s personal power. My shrines aim to delve into the idea of everyday rituals, and the conscious and unconscious rituals people undergo to become who we are. In It’s Never Too Late to Have a Happy Childhood, I aim to illuminate the structure laid out in Arnold van Ganeep’s, Rites of Passage, breaking a rite of passage into three separate stages which work in tandem with the three works: separation, transition and incorporation. Given this, each work has its own title: Rituals of Sacrifice, Rituals of Liminality and Rituals of Return. In the work, I’m aiming to illustrate how we use rituals and shrines as a way to mitigate fear and gain a new clarity after trauma. The process of creating the shrines in and of itself has reflected the ideas of the work, of spiritualizing my life and turning an arbitrary ritual into a spiritual one. The wooden boxes I built consist of photographs I have taken over the course of two years, mostly self portraits, and various collaged objects sourced from thrift stores. In my work, I aim to create something holy that I have not been able to find in organized religion and to really examine what a time of tremendous growth looks like in tandem with grief.
I take pictures of almost anything, it is what calms me down in life. I do this because I find joy in the process and I intend to extend that joy to the viewers of my work. Photographing nature gives me peace, even though the weather doesn’t always cooperate. There are difficult days, rainy days, long drives, overcast days, but this only makes me take better pictures. I mainly take pictures of nature because I love the outdoors and how beautiful this world can be. I want to show that in the crazy world we live in today, there is still beauty in nature that in turn is reflected in the people in this world.
For Nature’s Beauty, I focus on the beauty of nature and how humans interact with it to shed light on the good in this world that we live in. I am doing this by photographing places that attract many people. Most of these locations are in Pennsylvania, some are of the Philadelphia suburbs and other photographs are taken in rural parts of Philadelphia as well as parks throughout Pennsylvania. When I go to these parks it is a very peaceful environment and I capture the moment how I see it. I look for open spaces where I can capture a wide view of the expanse of nature. I am drawn to very quiet places, I do not like having too much activity in my images. This series focuses on what I see in nature everyday; showing my viewers the beauty of the world from my perspective. Whether it is a picture of trees with a river or just a picture of land, I am highlighting the beauty of what surrounds us. These images are meant to counter the difficulties we have all faced during the pandemic, I am capturing these moments to show individuals the amazing healing properties of nature. When everything seems impossible or difficult, just take a step outside, whether it’s at the beach, or in the forest, or even just a field, to take a look at what this world can offer us. Nature is one peaceful, healing and beautiful space item that we have left, cherish it.
As an African American artist, I believe that my art allows me to create a visual representation of what I believe, what I’m passionate about, and what my purpose is. With photography, my work creates narratives surrounding specific issues and subjects which raise societal awareness, specifically issues in the black and brown community. This series, Black & Brushed Aside, references the major racial injustices and problems that we face. These issues include: political redlining, views of how unprofessional our culture is, the disrespect and sexualization of black women, the suspicious assumptions of a black man’s appearance, police brutality, and how society stereotypes our professions categorizing our intelligence and feelings as less than or illiterate. While these situations continue to occur, many individuals will want us to ignore them, force us to “get over it”, or utilize other issues to protest against our racial difficulties. My goal is to present an emotional set of photographs that portray many of the issues that are currently affecting in the black community. Each photo represents and references historical or real life situations that have happened. The purpose is to raise awareness and understanding of the problems that I see and why these issues should gain more attention, while many people in society try to force us to ignore them.
I am an artist that uses photography as a medium to highlight the important issues of today. With this project, I am focusing on issues and narratives surrounding addiction and mental health. As my own father suffers from some of these issues, I have truly seen the instabilities and complications that life can create. I wanted to reveal my father as a whole person, featuring our great memories and the things he has taught me growing up. Addiction does not define someone, and that is an important message I want to convey through this series. Influences like Ansel Adams and Robert Frank, pushed me to use black and white photography for this work.
I draw inspiration in my work from emotional responses. I aspire to visually capture the complexities of emotion to spark a connection with my audience. I have always considered myself articulate, however in terms of the connections and feelings that overwhelm me, I have struggled to understand and communicate the various layers of these experiences. My work explores the parallel between connection and innocence. I am inspired by events in my life that have caused intense levels of emotions. I recognize and admire these experiences as events that have ignited extreme levels of personal growth.
In Entrance to Emotions, each piece attempts to dive deep into an emotional response due to a loss of connection. Using acrylic paint on various sized canvases, I work to combine my surrealist style and realist techniques with line detailing to portray a raw understanding of grief. I am excited by various interpretations and connections to themes that may not be intended in the work. This is a representation of personal deciphering of my own experiences of connection.
My work explores the relationship between women and growth. The series, Pieces of a Woman, 2021, explores the idea that “pieces” of ourselves are taken away from us through our life, and in turn we also are constantly adding “pieces” to ourselves. These growth moments are so crucial to one’s development as a person, especially as a woman. I chose to photograph women in my age bracket and because I identify as a woman myself. For the past couple of years, I have habitually written letters to my future self to read. These letters serve as reminders to myself of how far I’ve come and why I deserve to exist. In the studio, I asked each of my subjects to write a letter to themselves, reflecting on where they would ideally want to be in their future; the parts of themselves they would want to grow, “add” or remove. Visually, I take notice of central themes in each of their letters and collage different portraits from the session into one. The physical manipulation of the images represents those “pieces” taken away from us, but also the “pieces” we use to reform ourselves anew. This is something we do everyday and will continue to do for the rest of our lives. We are constantly building ourselves to be something better, and it is my purpose to visually manifest this through these portraits.
For my current project, “Killer Humans”, I decided to create a series of clay animals that are endangered due to humanity’s impact on the environment. When you think of sharks or rhinos or tigers most people think they are killers, when in reality we are more dangerous than they are. I want the viewer to look at these pieces and feel moved to make a change to help this planet and the animals within it. This series incorporates sculptural and functional ceramic work, both which reveal some of the reasons why these animal species are endangered. I have a mug with an elephant trunk sculpted onto the side to form the handle; The tusk that has been cut off to represent human poaching. Poachers will cut off their tusks and sell them illegally and trade them for ivory. I also have a bowl with features of a shark on it, because people cut off their fins illegally to make shark fin soup. This bowl has a lid with a shark fin handle to represent humans taking off the fins, like taking off the lid. When the fins of sharks are cut off they throw them back into the ocean still alive, since they do not have fins they are unable to swim effectively and end up sinking to the bottom and suffocating or being eaten by other predators. I want people to know what is going on around the world and show them how much of an impact we can really make. In the future, I want to continue to bring awareness to situations like these and show people how powerful our actions can be.
My work displays my perception of life as a painter. Using vibrant acrylic colors, I paint on various sized canvases images of people, places and things that hold personal meaning and express my unique experiences. My goal is to invoke inspiration and wonder in my audience and introduce them to a new way of seeing the world, and their own lives through an impressionistic painting style. My series is titled,“ Col Tempo “, which in Italian, bears the meaning “with time”. The paintings I create contain deep personal symbolism and ideas rooted in the phrase “Col Tempo” . The work represents both the changing and the unmoving, the past and the present, the moments we grasp onto and the ones we keep creating and experiencing.
As the role of social media has evolved, sharing images of one’s true self has become very rare. This film photography series is meant to show the beautiful flaws that are exposed once the polish and edits are gone. I used film photography because it is in itself imperfect. Film gets dust, fingerprints, and streaks on it, and when taking self-portraits with a film camera it is often difficult to get perfectly adjusted, crisp images. Self-portraiture has always been a focus in my work because of the difficulties that come with taking, working on, and sharing images of yourself. While I enjoy working in a studio environment, I want to continue to explore personal spaces as art as well and a reflection of oneself. Especially today, with the rise of Instagram, the true self is often difficult to love and share with others. The Self in conjunction with one’s personal and private living space is an important and intimate relationship. This project aims to share true, raw images of a young woman existing in her own space as she is, and to show that imperfect images can be even more beautiful and meaningful than perfectly edited ones.
As an artist, I like to explore the theme of family and roots. My series YesterYear consists of still life photography, which responds to collected family photographs. Each image is constructed from objects with symbolic meaning. I begin each photograph by laying down a surface and then I construct my sets often using different types of fabric, mirrors, paper, jewelry and household items. I often use mirrors as the walls of my image to create illusions within the space and color of the image.
I use archived family photos and pair them as diptychs with these newly constructed images. I deconstruct the archived photos, taking the colors and items seen in the image to create a new one. To connect the images together with their assigned family photograph, I use lighting gels to mimic the color and feel of the light within the family images. This allows for the color palette to stand out as the two images are presented as a unified pair. These original family photos span from the 1940s to the 1990s. In these photos, I use a layering technique where I stack the items so that only parts are seen, creating depth in the image, forming a 3-dimensional sort of collage. I place the objects in a particular composition and choose whether or not to have a central subject.
My inspiration for my work comes from the exploration of trying to find a connection to the past. I like to think about what has been passed down from family and how many things occurred for us to be where we are now, at this time. With my work, I use my own family’s history and experiences in pursuit of expressing often underrepresented aspects of the Black American family, as well as unravelling the idea of purpose and belonging.
I created ‘Love Lines’ as a tribute to my loved ones. I have difficulty vocalizing my emotions, but this project serves as a visual representation of the feelings I have for these extraordinary people.
I have always been fascinated by hands and the stories they tell. Hands are the vessels that create artworks, mend broken bits, plant flowers, and embrace one another. Looking down at the intersecting lines of a palm, I knew one day I wanted to create something that captured the dynamics of a person, their hands, and my love for them.
Each piece is about 16 by 20 inches and features a black and white photo of a family member’s hands doing an activity that is familiar to them. Choosing colors representative of each person’s aura, I wove thread in different styles and directions throughout each piece. I combined my appreciation for the simplistic, traditional nature of black and white photography and colorful, textured embroidery to communicate the everyday intricacies of love.
One of my key philosophies is to create art that is fun and free. In every other aspect of my life, I am reserved, quiet, and somewhat shy. But the use of acrylic paint, watercolors, paint markers, acrylic ink, and self-portraiture helps me release the feelings I hide. It is like a stream of consciousness turned visual. I often don’t know what the artwork is about until it is done, which leads to deeper understanding of the subliminal.
The main focus of my series “Sun Printing, but Make it Fashion” is fashion sustainability. Clothes are the second biggest polluter in the world with large amounts ending up in landfills that take forever to decompose. “Fast fashion”, is the mass production of clothes that are usually being made by exploited workers in third world countries. Much of this type of clothing is what ends up in landfills. A main combatant against “fast fashion” is thrift shops.
The methods used in this series involve me either creating and sewing my own clothing or acquiring the garments from consignment stores. I am implementing upcycling into my project by taking something old and turning it into something new in a sustainable way. In an attempt to combine both my photography background and my new aspiration for fashion I decided to use cyanotype as a natural dye on my clothing garments.
Using Jackson Pollock inspired “paint splatters”, tie dyeing, or soaking the entire fabric I can change the color and add personality to certain garments. The cyanotype process involves brushing or painting a light sensitive solution onto a substrate, once dried you expose the substrate to sunlight and it turns into a rich blue color. It is used as an alternative photographic process. You could say that my coworker throughout this project would be the Sun. This ties in with the environmental aspect of work which involves using what is available to us in order to create art in a sustainable way.
Once each garment is designed and crafted, I take these pieces and generate a high fashion photoshoot with the garments. By using myself as a model, I am connecting myself to these pieces and showcasing how they can be worn and used. This brings me to my secondary focus in my work which is, gender inclusive fashion. Anyone can wear whatever they want that makes them feel comfortable and confident. Humans are complex creatures and we need various outlets to express ourselves. Having a gender binary restricts and limits creativity and self-expression.
Everyday people should be able to wake up and choose what they want to wear that day that will make them feel happy, regardless of what gender the clothes are assigned by society. I want people to think “I would wear that” when they look at the work in this series. I want people to start thinking of ways that they can be more sustainable when it comes to clothing, and not restrict themselves when it comes to what they want to wear.
My series “A Love Letter to the City” reflects on and explores my personal relationship with the city of Philadelphia. The places featured in this series of photographic postcards represent the most important places to me surrounding my experiences in Philadelphia. While this series highlights more of the touristy and eye-catching destinations in the city, I am not naive to the challenges people face here. I recognize that there are struggles in Philadelphia such as gun violence and poverty. However, in my series I wanted to focus on the beautiful aspects of the city, and why they are important to me.
I grew up in suburban New Jersey, and it was boring. There was nothing to do within walking distance, and life seemed slow. The one bright side of growing up in the suburbs was my proximity to the city. I love the city of Philadelphia. Some of my best memories have been here and my work conveys the gratitude I have for it. I went to college here, I had my first internship here, I discovered what career I wanted to pursue here, working in entertainment and social media. Equally as important, I discovered my passion for photography.
One of the first places I can remember going to in Philly was Citizens Bank Park. My family is huge Phillies fans, so we would go to games every summer when I was growing up, and this was my first real exposure to the city. When it became the time for me to choose a college, I chose to attend Saint Joseph’s University. I felt that going to school in Philly would give me opportunities that I would have not had in suburban New Jersey. During the summer of my junior year of college, I had my first internship in the city with WaWa Welcome America. I remember how stressed and nervous I was on the
first day of this internship. I had to meet everyone at The Giant Paintbrush which is a location that did not come up on Apple Maps. This internship really helped me to solidify my career goals. This series highlights locations in Philadelphia combining them with a written component that expresses my gratitude for the city.
This project, titled “Colligo” is my premier exhibition of ceramic work. “Colligo” is a highly detail-oriented collection of ceramic insects presented in the form of an entomologist’s assortment. Each individual insect works in singularity and as an integral component to the cohesive collection, representing a single iteration of one organism, but collectively forming a crawling conglomeration.
The key idea behind this work is to shed light on the idea of collection. We as people are collectors of things– of memories, of experiences, of events– these things compile to build individual humans with unique existence. Physical relics remind us of people and places and represent intimate relationships with these memories. A celebration and integration of my relationship to the natural world informs my fascination with insects, and their preservation. Bugs are living organisms that through preservation, adorn our walls and pepper our science classrooms. Their chitin exoskeleton retains their form and allows people to see a livelihood captured in time. Noticing the small things in life and paying excruciating attention to the intricate details of these bugs is a commonality to my work, as I continually have a personal stash of found treasures. By presenting a collection of animals that would regularly be overlooked, this project functions to bridge the viewer to the microscopic beauty that surrounds us and represent the idolatry of nature.
The process of this work is akin to its content, with an emphasis on connection and creation within nature. The majority of the material for this project is composed of various clays with a surface treatment of acrylic paint. I work using a handbuilding technique that allows me to make a physical connection to each subject I work on. Inspiration is drawn from photographs or, when available, through dead insects that have been found. These models serve to provide an accurate figure to my naturalistic work and style.
This exhibition serves to celebrate the idiosyncrasies of collecting and how this contributes to a person at large. Through utilizing a realistic approach, I am showing an appreciation to the natural world as I share with the viewer an enticing array of insects.
Identity is a word known by everyone in the world, but is it truly understood? Of course, every human being on earth has an identity consisting of qualities, beliefs, personality, expressions that make a person who they are and special. Indeed, identity is unique and differs by country, culture, and traditions. Today, our “Identity” exhibition explores a special side of uniqueness. The current exhibit highlights Philadelphia area artists of Central American, South American, and Puerto Rican heritage, with the common theme of identity and a particular focus on culture and family origin. Henry Bermudez, Rodríguez “Roca” Calero, José Ortiz-Pagán, Doris Nogueira Rogers, and Marta Sánchez are the artists that chose to share with us a glimpse of their experiences, stories, and feelings that belong to their identity. Today, while they live on the east coast of the United States and have adopted this country as a part of their identity, their cultures remain a significant component of their incredible art. Using fascinating and revolutionary varieties of mediums, these artists present us with fantastic artworks inspired by childhood memories, exciting travels, family traditions, personal feelings and perceptions, and current social issues both in their country and in the United States. We hope that this exhibition will allow people to reflect on their own identity while learning a better visual and emotional understanding of these artists’ cultures. So today, as you stand in front of these artworks, remember the uniqueness that makes you, the person next to you, and the artists.
~ Rebecca Elbaze
Gallery Exhibition Research Assistant
Philadelphian Girl, Acrylic and Glitter on Canvas, 2021
Henry Bermudez’s Philadelphia Girl is directly inspired by the artist’s identity that has traveled and significantly evolved with time. After graduating from art school in his home country of Venezuela, Henry Bermudez became an art teacher in the small town of Borubes. Created as a plantation to cultivate sugarcane, Borubes saw the coming of many African slaves. As a result, and after much time and effort, Borubes became rooted in African traditions, music, dance, mythology, and culture. That became a part of the artist’s identity and influenced his art. The complex background filled with prominent flowers reflects the artist’s idea of landscape, as he remembers from his many visits to the Amazon’s bountiful forest. Further, the mesmerizing glitters and colors are influenced by the artist’s experience living in Mexico and Peru. Philadelphia Girl represents the artist’s identity, traveling and picking up pieces of different cultures. Today, after 19 years of living in Philadelphia, Henry Bermudez proudly says that he also feels like he belongs to the city’s culture without forgetting his past experiences, which are all feelings reflected in this artwork.
~ Rebecca Elbaze, Gallery Exhibition Research Assistant
Rodríguez Calero, The AmeRícan Tragedy, 2019, Fotacrolé mm on canvas
The AmeRícan Tragedy is a poignant artwork that embodies deep meanings and sentiments. Two handcuffed individuals stand in front of a small Puerto Rican flag layered upon the prominent American flag. Roca says that this imagery is inspired by Puerto Rican Poet Tato Laviera and his work in which he is yearning for the Utopian Society, which in reality does not exist. The artist’s message behind the creation of this piece is both emotional and political. Indeed, the artist notes that “Puerto Ricans continue to be subjects of the United States without a right to vote for the president, without voting representation in Congress and equal treatment compared with citizens born or naturalized in the United States.” The paper towel acting as handcuffs symbolizes what critics said about Trump’s inability to sympathize with others and his self-absorbed leadership in a time of crisis. The AmeRícan Tragedy uses Fotacrolé mixed media, which evolved from Roca’s visual fields of expression, such as photography, acrollage painting, and collage. This form grew from a physical, emotional, and developmental need to revitalize the artist’s creative processes.
~ Rebecca Elbaze
Gallery Exhibition Research Assistant
Rodríguez Calero, nuYoRican Experience 2015, Archival pigment print
The series of three nuYoRican Experience canvases contains bright images layered upon each other. The elements included in the canvases are meant to integrate and maintain strong and deep ties between the island of Puerto Rico and New York. With the meditative woman’s face, exotic fruits, pastel blue sky with clouds, and fluttering trees, the nuYoRican Experience canvases blend two worlds that make the artist’s identity.
~ Rebecca Elbaze
Gallery Exhibition Research Assistant
The neo-abstract series is Doris Nogueira Rogers’ most recent work. Created during the pandemic’s challenging lockdown, Amazon’s Genesis is inspired directly by the Brazilian nature that always fascinated Doris. The artist’s connection to nature is profound. While growing up in the populated industrial city of Rio de Janeiro, Doris would find peace in the tropical forest and sea that surround Brazil. Further, Amazon’s Genesis reminds her childhood and home as she remembers her grandmother’s garden filled with colorful orchids, a greenhouse, and tropical flowers. Doris would sketch botanical watercolor from prints gifted by her brother as a child. Today, she revisits her original sketches of leaves and pods with these intricate and colorful patterns. Each canvas contains deep symbolism to remind the viewers of the importance of nature. For instance, the floating brown lines in each canvas represent the illegal logging of wood in Brazil, which often leads to deforestation. Amazon’s Genesis is a powerful series that connects one culture to another that all can relate to and feel because, as Doris says, nature is everywhere and can be found all around us.
~ Rebecca Elbaze, Gallery Exhibition Research Assistant
Brazil Deconstructed, Serigraph, 2018
With its tinted light-yellow background and green and red layered circles, Brazil
Deconstructed embodies both the artist’s family traditions and the Brazilian society. The red and green circles layered upon each other contain intricate and elaborate patterns, including natural elements such as leaves. This artwork takes Doris back to her family tradition or detailed crochet and embroidery work which the women in her family were masters of. The choice for this imagery is an homage to the artist’s grandmother, whom she remembers was perhaps the best at embroidery and loved watching her do the craft. The colors are also meticulously chosen to remind of the Brazilian flag but with tinted tones. That is to show that despite being layered, they are separated elements. Painted in 2018, during the Brazilian presidential elections, this symbolizes how society in Brazil can often become divided after one is elected to power as any other place on earth. The black butterfly, often seen as a symbol of joy and happiness, is trapped in the middle. Doris’ artwork shows that someone’s identity is a blend of happy memories that follow even through the most challenging times.
~ Rebecca Elbaze, Gallery Exhibition Research Assistant
“Partida”
Dimensions variable, mixed media installation, 2022
Jose Ortiz-Pagan’s two prominent pieces continue a series of works he has long worked on. Growing up in Puerto Rico, the artist was surrounded by the sea and developed a spiritual and meditative relationship with the ocean. The sea is vast and allows for infinite traveling during one’s lifetime. The two pieces together reflect this idea and the concept of transition as part of one’s unique identity. Jose explains that a person does not truly have one set identity. Instead, it is continually transitioning with life’s experiences.
With its long and dense red strings, the crab displays signs of transition by bleeding out its identity to allow new experiences into itself. Similarly, the sea urchin at the center of the circular piece turned white as in real life when they died, all while retaining a vivid red at its heart. Unlike the sea urchin that can only live at the bottom of the sea, the crab can settle in the water, on rock, or land. While both pieces are different, they become connected by a few red strings to suggest the continuing transition. The circular part is almost entirely made of papier-mâché and wood surrounded by nails and detailed golden strings. The crab includes a natural upper shell ending with papier-mâché and touches of gold.
~ Rebecca Elbaze, Gallery Exhibition Research Assistant
Marta Sanchez, Corona Spring, oil and enamel on tin, 4’x4’ 2020
Since its beginning, the pandemic has been a challenge for everyone worldwide, regardless of one’s identity. The artist says, “Coronavirus didn’t care of what economic, social, or cultural upbringings you had; it touched everyone.” Yet, while all of us remained locked in our homes, nature prevailed and continued to thrive. Martha always loved witnessing the change of the seasons from her window, “but,” Martha says, “the spring of 2020 was different, like the novel Silent Spring, it was looming with environmental overtones. Only this time, it wasn’t a sci-fi book by Ray Bradbury or a segment of Twilight zone. It was real.” As a Latina, the artist knows too well the feelings of fear and vulnerability that her culture experienced. Yet, for once, everyone shared these feelings and tried to survive and make each passing season the best possible. Regardless, it is essential to remember that with or without us, the robins will enjoy the cherry blossoms during the season.
~ Rebecca Elbaze
Gallery Exhibition Research Assistant
Marta Sanchez, The Acrobat, oil and enamel on tin
The Acrobat is part of the artist’s train series depicting the Mexican experience with the building of train yards in Mexico and America. The inspiration behind the choice of depiction is directly connected to the artist’s grandmother, who was part of a Mexican vaudevillian troop known as Las Carpas. The Acrobat’s legs are filled with parts of a poem by poet and folklorist Norma E.Cantú incorporated in their collaborative suite of prints, Transcendental Train Yards. The poem is based on the children’s song “R con R cigarro,” which is a song that teaches them how to roll their “r’s.” The poem begins with this song and shifts to convey more significant concerns in life’s journeys as a Mexicano/a, Chicana/o, Latina/o in modern-day times.
~ Rebecca Elbaze
Gallery Exhibition Research Assistant
Marta Sanchez, 7 paintings of detention and immigration, oil on masonite
Marta Sanchez has long been involved and interested in researching detained immigrants’ lives before and during COVID-19. By creating these seven paintings, the artist wanted to acknowledge and share the painful existence immigrants too often go through. During the past few years, immigration ethics have been a primary concern globally, and “artists have the ability to bring the world around us into other realms,” Marta says. The seventh painting in the center depicts a father and toddler daughter drowned together swimming to the other side of the border. For the artist, this image is the most painful and heartbreaking but will last a lifetime in the minds of its audience.
~ Rebecca Elbaze
Gallery Exhibition Research Assistant
We Can See the Sky From HereTaking over a year to make, Cartier added a layer each day to create this large-scale piece. She doesn’t begin each piece with a firm plan, but rather lets the piece grow naturally. She works with an aggressive style, taping and tacking the different images and sketches while ensuring that all elements of the composition work together. With each layer Cartier likes to “get through it quickly and attack it,” getting rid of any blank spaces.
This piece shows her optimism and sense of community for Camden. The imagery of the two girls looking into the sky suggests that “there is something greater out there, and we are all in this together,” Cartier explains. This subject with surrounding local relics and scraps shows how devoted Cartier has become to the city of Camden.
~ Lauren Yingling ‘25
Gallery Exhibition Research Assistant
Artist Statement
I have always lived inside an image-based culture. Consumer society taught me how to become literate in visual imagery and read messages, but never to excavate the origins of my most cherished rituals and assumptions. You know, the things that appear around me every day in the world that most don’t question. The images that circulate throughout society are constantly being constructed, reconstructed and recycled. And here I am, decoding the ever more complex messages, signs and traces of the everyday. The current accessibility of information has made it easy to combine and recombine- and form a version that is my own.
Every source, situation and identity morphs continually depending on time, place and disposition. Things, places and people come and go; nothing is permanent. Here I go again, sifting through the rubble to find something that can be made again, reused, and combined. Bit by bit by bit. Are you in or out? Life goes on.
My hand activates an existing source; I see myself as a catalyst that transfers other peoples’ hands, heart, head and voices in a collaborative process. The focus on my work isn’t myself, even though I am the composer, the chooser. One that mixes, not just in terms of imagery, but in terms of methodologies. I use the found and the felt, the improvisational and the strategic. Some things you stumbled upon or you think you find. Other things you run right back into, or they find you all over again. Most of the time I make do with what I have available to me. A certain type of fragmentation.
I deal with pieces, scraps. These pieces are something I want to hold on to. Something that presented a value to me I need to preserve, save. I will find a use for them later, within my visual lexicon of sources, fragments. Pick up the pieces and put them back together, like brand new. The bodilessness of information is the recombiner’s pleasure. The hardest part is deciding which are worth keeping and which parts you could throw away. Not all shards are worth saving.
Constructing images through methods of collage is immediate and ferocious; no time to think twice, no room for second guessing. Making a quick decision right then and there; get on with it, hurry up! The result of rapidly combining forms, shapes and text together is instantly gratifying and indulging. Collage is a form of urgent process, response and action. Second guessing destroys the intensity of the present; the present moment is the most important moment. That snapshot freezing time and place, solidifying the value of the image. These times we live in are bold, intense. I get lost in it. I make paintings that embody the present moment and place in which I find myself.
I occupy myself in the seamless integration of various surfaces and forms within that surface. Rectifying the incoherence of mark-marking between a digital surface and painted gesture, I am informed by the graphic crispness of the way images are digested. Lines can connect images, points, references and surfaces. Painting on digital and printed materials serves to expose the fragility of the surface.
I tear what the world gives me into pieces and put it back together with paint. Tearing is an act of frustration, defiance and play against what is brilliantly manufactured for me to consume. Ripping is a way for me to physically expose rough edges and ideas that do not align perfectly. I’m making sense of all the parts as they appear. Not all relationships are seamless, but mark making can pull sources, images and text together. That immediate gesture and line in the form of brushstroke is so gratifying, instant. Painting is as immediate as I am, as burning as the present moment; a source of direct activation. I choose to distort and delay the instant.
My mixed media paintings have reached a higher level of density than ever before. Induced by the rapid compilation of sources and signals. Filling up the spaces of my daily existence. I include everything I can within an image, unable to leave anything out. Let me hide here in everything I see, everything I’m exposed to. The breathing room that once lived inside my paintings has vanished; it’s been filled with more density, more noise and more chaos. That chaos speaks to the way I approach making images. Signs. Layers. Versions. Faster, Nearer. More intense. Loud. Fast. Bold. Unrestricted. Turn me up. Set me free. I don’t know how to whisper.
These pieces illustrate Cartier’s power to repurpose anything around her. While walking she came across the two window panes and immediately found inspiration. Cartier sees opportunity in what is typically viewed as trash and gives it life once again. These pieces show her dedication to repurposing materials. She describes the process of collaging and painting on both sides of the glass to be a challenging yet fun and rewarding experience. These are examples of Cartier’s exploration into adding sculpture to her repertoire.
~ Lauren Yingling ‘25
Gallery Exhibition Research Assistant
Biography
Danielle Cartier is best known for her mural projects and large-scale, multimedia paintings made from reconstructed materials, recombined ephemera and layered printmaking and painting processes. Danielle was born in San Jose, CA and grew up in the Northern California Bay Area. She graduated from Sonoma State University in 2014 with a BFA degree, concentrating in both painting & printmaking. In 2017, she received her MFA from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Her work has been viewed in various exhibitions across the West Coast, Midwest, South, New England and the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. Cartier has experience teaching studio art courses at Sonoma State University in California, the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, Harcum College in Pennsylvania, Rutgers University and Stockton University in New Jersey. Most recently, Cartier has painted and over fifteen public art murals within Camden, NJ. Danielle continues to make large-scale multimedia paintings and public art murals from her local studio at Camden Fireworks Gallery & Creative Space in Camden, New Jersey.
Boland Hall Student Exhibit October 4 – 29, 2021
This exhibit is a collection of pieces selected from the Spring 2021 Intro to 3D Art and Fall 2021 Sculpture and the Environment classes taught by Professor Steve Rossi. Through this exhibit, the students are able to express their understanding of form, essence and conceptual development.
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The planar forms, taken from a series of deconstructed drawings of previously created wire sculptures, are cut from cardboard and a class demo is given demonstrating how a slotting technique can create strong mechanical connections that do not need glue. A discussion is had related to relationships between positive and negative spaces, principles of three-dimensional composition, line, form, balance, rhythm, repetition, interesting sightlines from a variety of angles etc. The black and white two-dimensional paintings on cardboard included in the exhibition were created prior to the sculptures being painted, this exercise provided an opportunity for students to practice with the hard-edge painting technique and to explore various ways of incorporating the corrugation of the cardboard as an intentional design element.
“Denotations (#sunglasses, metallique.productions)”STATEMENT
I found this note I wrote in my phone from right before the pandemic that I found interesting and funny; “Negotiations of a pretend and fancy life”. This is how I see my work. In a general sense, my work hinges on the idea of exploring the superficial and meaningful simultaneously. I navigate this, most often, from a perceived lack of belonging.
This show is a revisiting of thoughts between March 2020 and last week.
The idea of a “party” or an “after party” is fascinating to me and has a new definition in our current culture and climate. What is an “after party” anyway? As someone always thinking I am on the outside looking in, I don’t think I have ever been invited to an “after party”. Will I ever be cool enough to actually get invited to one? Will they let me in? Will I be asked to clean up?
And then I think of the pandemic and our politics and environment; What and when is the party after this one? Is there one? Will I be asked to clean up?
All these thoughts led to some paintings with images I found online, a painting on fabric from the first mask I tried to sew, another on a blanket, and some paintings about merging images (Venn diagrams) and some “neon” paintings from what I learned on YouTube. I convinced my family and friends to do some paint by numbers of my own work and I did some other projects with friends. (Thanks to all of them.)
This show is about life, its absurdity, and its hopes
I could go on
“You must go on. I can’t go on. I’ll go on.”
― Samuel Beckett, The Unnamable
Thanks for looking
Anthony
BIO
Anthony Vega is a visual artist, educator and curator in the Philadelphia area. Originally from the rural town of Green Creek, New Jersey he has spent the last 14 years pursuing his artistic career. His undergraduate work was completed at Saint Joseph’s University where he studied fine art and philosophy. His Master of Fine Arts degree was received from the University of Delaware.
He is currently Assistant Professor of Art at Reading Area Community college, and had previously taught as adjunct faculty at the University of Delaware and Penn State Brandywine, teaching studio courses, contemporary art theory and media studies. He exhibits his work in galleries, museums and other venues regionally and nationally. Anthony was also the director of the University of Delaware Philadelphia gallery, UD@Crane in the Crane Arts building.
Anthony’s current practice rests on his fascination of language, meaning and image. These interests are explored through the use of web-based images, color and layering, but specifically through the exploration of how interpretations and connections are made both personally and socially.
Reprieve/ Contact Lucidity (#neon paintings)
Turns out during the pandemic lots of us turned to “comfort foods”. I know I did.
I also did a lot of Twitter scrolling. This small series of paintings is borrowed from some text and a tweet I saw by Jerry Saltz. Jerry was writing about the Cezanne drawing show and referred to the work as providing a type of contact lucidity. A reworking of a quote from “A Scanner Darkly” by Phillip K. Dick; “He wondered how much of the insanity of the day–his insanity–had been real, or just induced as a contact lunacy, by the situation.”
Jerry was thinking, quite nicely, that Cezanne provides a type of awareness, and clarity of our world through his work. I really want to hold onto that sentiment; but can’t.
I’m just not sure a type of lucidity can exist in 2021. And if we could find it, it would be rather fleeting. I got to thinking about those things that “ground” us, or things that provide us pleasure or a kind of escape. Maybe not lucidity, but a break from the lunacy, or maybe its just more lunacy?
I turned to TikTok and then YouTube.
Turns out there are lots of people making paintings online. Folks making very different work than mine, for vastly different reasons than me. I thought I would look at one of the more popular methods emulated, “neon” painting. This is where you use a kind of technique to make lines in a painting look like they are made of neon light. So I made these.
These are “neon” paintings of comfort foods.
Near Project (paint by number)
I always wanted to see how my work would look if made by someone else. I have done a few projects in the past that explored this idea. But this particular moment seems most appropriate. Especially in this very strange pandemic time.
This project is an opportunity for me to connect and share with those that I missed during lockdown, or those that we found somehow more connected because of the pandemic.
I choose some of my favorite pieces that I made in the past and figured out a way to make each a “paint by number”. I mixed the paint, marked out the lines, packed it all up with directions and brushes …
I then asked some family and friends to make my work.
I am super lucky that there are people that I really should have sent one of these to, but couldn’t because of time. But this project I hope is something that I continue in the future.
Denotations
I think an almost unhealthy amount about what things mean. That meaning can be a lot of things; fiction, truth, self-serving, wrong, idealized, radical, fluid. In our current state(s) it seems that denotations by themselves can become unstuck, or their descriptions alone are in flux, or at the very least not easily identifiable or reduced.
I have never thought about fabric as much as I have in the past 19 months. The fashion and protection of masks, or the warmth provided by the blanket now available at the outdoor dining restaurant. I made two fabric pieces for this show. One from the fabric I used to try and sew my first mask and the second on a rather warm blanket that I bought at Ikea.
I combined these fabrics with shoes and sunglasses. Shoes take on a new meaning when you are outside all the time or when you don’t leave your house that much and sunglasses don’t need to do as much work to hide who you are in public since we are wearing masks all the time. Both objects really hold a lot of meaning and are fashion items but their denotations (the way we describe things) seem to have changed.
The Experimental Digital Photography class explores the physical nature of the photographic image. Moving beyond the traditional flat picture plane and exploring photography as part of sculpture and installation is an important part of this course. Students constantly question what a photograph is and can be. Discovery, play and inquiry are fundamental parts of this class.
SOPHIA DELL’ARCIPRETE
Sophia takes a deeper look into what it means to be a mother and a woman. Sophia interviewed her mother who answered by telling stories about her children. She also spoke about her childhood and how losing her mom affected her parenting style. Sophia laser engraved her mother’s stories word-for-word overtop of portraits taken on black and white 120 film. She then scanned the negatives, made slight adjustments and printed them digitally.
FINN MONAHAN
Inspired by artist Leyla Cardenas, Finn chose to create work highlighting environmental issues and climate change. Choosing to remove threads from the images shows the slow decay of Mother Nature and the negative effects of human intervention.
CASEY CLEMETSEN
Casey’s work focuses on discrimination and gender gaps in the work force. She chose four fields where there are few women or women have a difficult time projecting themselves in this career due to misogynistic thinking. Those fields being politics, sports, science, and construction/ engineering. After photographing items that symbolize these career paths, she then embroidered the photographs, a process typically seen as feminine. By contrasting these two elements she aims to raise awareness of gender inequality and gender stereotypes.
TYLER SWITALA
This piece comments on litter and our environment. Last year the United States taxpayers spent nearly $11 billion cleaning up litter across the USA, 10 times more than the cost of trash removal. Tyler photographed beautiful nature reserves and hiking trails of Mills Reservation County Park & Wissahickon Park and contrasted the beautiful shots of nature against pieces of white or clear plastic trash. The juxtaposition of image and material brings awareness to the issue of human pollution.
NASIR CHANDLER
Many people, especially women, are victims of sexual abuse, sexual assault, sexual harassment, and rape. Many of the victims are 12 years old or even younger. While many criminals responsible for sexual abuse have been given the punishment that they deserve, the actions of other criminals, for some reason, have gone unpunished. Many people justify the actions of these criminals with excuses such as “boys will be boys,” or “maybe she should watch what she wears.” Nasir’s images bring text and identity together to personalize the victims and educate viewers.
ERIN KELLY
Things are not always what they seem. This piece narrates how society teaches us to trust and believe in only the things we can see and judge by appearances. This distrust and negation of the socially unacceptable is reflected in everyday society, people and politics. We have become a vulnerable society believing only what we see to be the truth.
HUNTER BARKHORN
Many people see only the good in their surrounding easily overlooking the human effects on the environment. The natural disasters in this world such as forest fires and hurricanes, as well as air pollution and water pollution are caused by society’s imprint on the environment. Hunter’s piece depicts the contrast of good and bad in our surroundings. The cartoonishly cut shapes represent the government’s refusal to seriously address these events and larger environmental issues.
RACHEL COSGRIFF
“I had an eating disorder for 2 -3 years and it took a lot for me to overcome it. At this point in my life, I am flourishing like never before and am the healthiest I have ever been (mind and body).” Rachel depicts her personal life story in this piece. Through photography she displays her emotions and trials of living with anorexia. The subject (Rachel) is dark, sad and struggling. The flowers on the skirt represent Rachel’s current situation –flourishing, happy and healthy.
Gallery Talk 9/21 12:30-1:30 –
Sorry this event has been cancelled!
Join Justyna on Friday, the 24th to hear her speak about her work and
tour visitors through the gallery. Hope to see you there!
In conjunction with Philadelphia 20/20 Photo Festival
If unable to join in person, please join us live virtually via zoom!
Justyna Badach’s “Proxy War” exhibit features 16 large-scale gun powder and casein dichromate prints that comment on propaganda of war. The rather innocuous images come to life after examining their explosive composition and pernicious origination. The ISIS video stills which are the backdrop for the prints work in tandem with the authentic ISIS titles and Russian and American proselytizing language to illustrate the cunning methods used to turn violence into proud moments of male camaraderie. Badach’s work acknowledges the modern technology and social media used to attract followers, glorify military operations and emotionally desensitize viewers to the brutality of war.
Philadelphia-based artist Justyna Badach examines the hyper-masculinity and violence in the modern-day military and war propaganda in two incredible projects named Land of Epic Battles and Proxy War. In this series of large hand-made prints, Badach captures direct stills from ISIS recruitment videos and US and Russian’ War on Terror’ films about the Middle East. Badach’s inspiration for this project comes from her early work called Epic Film Stills, which focused on landscapes and explored how classic American Westerns glorified these places of genocides. In a new era of streaming and filming in 2014/15, Badach wanted to revisit the project by focusing on what masculine tropes looked like in today’s media. With the industry changing, ISIS recruitment videos circulated on the internet using similar visuals that American Western films used. ISIS is well aware of the Western appeal, and as Badach said, “It is a global language that terrorist groups understand very well, and they are appropriating it for their own purposes.”
Badach purposely used black powder in her prints in homage to the World Trade Center bombing; the dangers of using this black powder matched that of the subject matter. Black powder is an early form of gunpowder, but differs from modern gunpowder in that it is not smokeless. The process turned out challenging for numerous reasons. Shortly after 2001, black powder was put on a restricted list. Badach underwent an extensive search before a small gun shop finally sold it to her, “no questions asked,” for testing. Black powder is very difficult to combine with photographic material, and it took an entire year before Badach mastered the medium.
Land of Epic Battles’ images are titled after ISIS’s recruitment videos in which they appear. The titles are of utmost importance because they give context to what may not be inherently apparent to the naked eye. Badach mentions that “ISIS had a very specific titling sequence that they used,” so that the videos can easily be accessed by searching certain words to attract potential fighters from all over the world. ISIS strategically creates recruiting videos for different audiences by making them in several languages. The text only images are actual subtitles from the recruiting videos targeting an English or European audience. These prints demonstrate Badach’s concept that words are as powerful as imagery.
Proxy War demonstrates the Russian and US war propaganda films, and thus is an extension of Land of Epic Battles. Proxy War’s images are titled after what was said in the videos and US press conferences about the Middle East wars. Badach confirms the importance of viewing Proxy War and Land of Epic Battles side by side because “[The images] are from the same site; even if the story is told from a different point of view, it is still propaganda.” The triptychs are some of Badach’s favorite frames because of the arduous process which creates a deeper connection between artist and print. Each print requires four to six layers of coating and Badach says, “every additional coating is a risk for the print to get ruined.”
Badach explains that focusing on the hyper-masculine violence in this exhibit was significant because “as a woman, I am their primary victim.” Women and children suffer the circumstances of war, and it was crucial for Badach to have a voice and document the consequences of war. This project correlates with the current tragic situation in Afghanistan in many ways. Several pieces on display show locations in Afghanistan, such as Killing the Apostates in Revenge for the Monotheists and Bamiyan. In their recruitment films, ISIS purposely incorporated images that were appropriated from the Taliban because both terrorist groups actively recruit each other’s fighters. Bamiyan shows the site that once held a colossal ancient statue of Buddha destroyed by dynamite by the Taliban in 2001. ISIS includes images from the Taliban in their film because their actions are very similar; destroying ancient buildings and monuments, as seen in Palmyra #2. Badach warns the viewers that ISIS is “not so different from the Taliban, as they are the same thing under a different name.” It is crucial for the public to see this exhibit to raise awareness of war propaganda and better understand Afghanistan’s current events.
– Rebecca Elbaze, Gallery Exhibition Research Assistant
Bio
Badach arrived in the US as a refugee in 1980. She received her MFA from the Cranbrook Academy of Art and currently resides in Philadelphia, where she is an artist, educator, and museum professional. Her work has been exhibited extensively throughout the United States and abroad. Solo exhibitions include: Light Work Syracuse, White Columns New York, Gallery 339 Philadelphia, Blue Sky Gallery in Portland and Contemporary Art Center in Las Vegas. Badach’s images have been included in over 30 group exhibitions, most notably at the Michener Museum, Rick Wester Gallery, Catherine Edelman Gallery and the Australian Center for Photography. Her work has been reviewed extensively and images have been featured in Wired Magazine, Contact Sheet, F-Stop Magazine, Dummy Magazine and several exhibition catalogs. Badach’s work is the permanent collections of Portland Art Museum, Museet for Fotokunst Brandts, Odense, Denmark, Center for Photography Woodstock, Cranbrook Museum of Art, Rice University Library, Houston, TX, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA and Haverford College. She has been awarded an artist residency from Light Work, and grants from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, Leeway Foundation and The Independence Foundation.
Artist Statement:
“It is evident . . . that terrorist organizations, alongside transnational corporate interests, are one of the more vigilantly opportunistic exploiters of ‘events, spasms, ructions that don’t look like art and don’t count as art but are somehow electric, energy nodes, attractors, transmitters, conductors of new thinking, new subjectivity and action.’”
—Seth Price from Dispersion, 2002
My work examines the transmutation of history and repackaging of violence though appropriation and re-contextualization of images derived from films created for a male audience. My latest project, Land of Epic Battles and Proxy War are comprised of large-scale, prints made using gun powder. The images depict scenes culled from the online archives of ISIS recruitment data streams as well as American and Russian military internet propaganda, released as part of the ongoing war in the Middle East.
Today the great landmarks of tradition have been destroyed, but without society proposing new ones in their place. In a recent book, La Vraie Vie, Alain Badiou conceptualizes male adolescence, “as the experience of disorientation following the dissolution of the patriarchal symbolic order in the West. For boys and men . . . there is no clear exit from the symbolic disorientation in a capitalist desert where traditional rites of initiation into adulthood such as a job and marriage no longer operate. . .. So, in the happy, anxious void where the Law of the Father once spoke, we now have revenge porn, trolling, and terrorism. Their nihilism is a mix of sacrificial and criminal heroism, and a general aggression toward the Western world. This aggression is based on forms of traditional and identitarian regression, on the debris of tradition that are offered to them.” Land of Epic Battles (2015-2018) focuses on the hyper-masculine, violent world of ISIS recruitment videos that grew out of these socio-economic, technological and cultural shifts that are occurring on a global level. Disseminated via YouTube, as well as through private, encrypted internet subscription channels, ISIS data streams are endemic of the larger proliferation of computer files and digital “info-war” visuals that are provided on demand and watched by choice, negating concerns about legality and morality that have traditionally defined mass-media content. Similarly, Proxy War (2018-present) examines the parallel world of Russian and US military internet propaganda that grew out of “the war on terror” and seeks to glorify military operations taking place across the Islamic world. As these two adversarial nations compete to maintain their sphere of influence in the region, they, like ISIS, employ the pervasive glorification of violence and wanton destruction as a tool to motivate their “followers”.
Working from the position of both censor and video editor, I isolate the single frames depicting sites that serve as backdrops for these displays of male camaraderie, acts of violence, and mutilations. The resulting screen captures do not overtly display the acts violence. Instead, the images give form to the info-war coded lexicon of methods, signs, and symbols of contemporary warfare. Through this coded iconography and the destructive potential of the gunpowder that is used to make the images, the violence of the source material is registered.
In Land of Epic Battles, the title for each image is taken from the ISIS video episode in which the image appeared, drawing our attention back to the horrific acts disseminated by these streams. These titles, such as The Necks Cutting; Crush Your Enemies; or My Revenge, lend context and form to what at first glance may seem like a series of random objects and sites. An image that resembles a graphite drawing of an empty truck in the desert or a helicopter hovering in a cloud-filled sky is indeed innocuous, until we’re told that the context is ISIS-produced media and that the print itself is made of explosives. The appropriation of language is also an important to the understanding of Proxy War, which take their image titles directly from language used during US and Russian press conferences on the war in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.
Land of Epic Battles and Proxy War become the means through which we witness the pernicious forces at play in contemporary internet war media that employs the sophisticated tools and visual vocabulary of virtual reality games, reality TV, and DIY videos. Employing and subverting methods commonly used in the entertainment industry, ISIS and the military create media, that feeds on viewers’ addiction to social media, exploits the voyeuristic lure of reality TV, and nourishes their audience’s desire to watch what is socially taboo.
One of most striking features of the ISIS DIY “video streams” is their slick production strategies, and like the military messaging, their ability to continuous morph their distribution channels in order to avoiding attempts at image suppression or origin verification. It is clear that our collective experience is becoming increasingly fragmented and the reality of global vents is being defined and shaped by surreptitious media producers and algo-rhythms designed to getting as close as possible to viewers. As such, Land of Epic Battles and Proxy War registers the initial signs of a larger impending seismic shift that will inevitably alter our future collective experience and understanding of conflict and war.