Tackling themes of identity and self-presentation in photography and other media, recipients of the McKee and Kaempfer Summer Art Grants presented their artwork on Thursday night as the culmination of their summer-long independent projects.
Hosted in the Digital Media Lab of the Edwards Center for Art and Dance, the event served as a detailed, intimate platform where the artists could share their projects on display in the buildings’ hallways.
Following the modern Japanese PechaKucha format, each presenter shared 20 images of their work, each of which was accompanied by a 20 second description.
“Part of the reason why we ask them to do the PechaKucha presentations is to weave a narrative to see where [the students’] projects took them, and to describe the benefits of following work independently,” said Michael Kolster, associate professor of art and chair of the art department.
“These are totally self-designed projects … and a lot of the time they’ll come out of a project someone did in an art class,” said Eva Sibinga ’17, whose conceptual copper etchings were inspired by her Art and Science in the English Renaissance class as well as her printmaking class.
The exhibit includes a range of subject matters, themes and media—from Garrett English’s ’16 series of unidentifiable portraits about identity, privacy and representation to senior Haleigh Collins’ exhibit focused on domestic crafts.
Collins remarked that she has always focused her art around ideas of domestic crafts and what is and isn’t considered “high art,” though she prefers for her exhibition not to convey a single concrete argument.
“The whole hope is that students aren’t thinking about what other people want them to do, but they’re finding what they really want to do, and what really interests them,” said Kolster.
Kolster also explained that the grant was designed to augment the student experience in a way that’s not a part of the standard budget of the art department.
Students who received the grants had full freedom to pursue their projects throughout the summer in conjunction with the proposals that they submitted last spring. Some students just finished putting finishing touches on their works this past week in preparation for the exhibit.
Collins said that her favorite moment working on the project occurred on Tuesday, when she projected a short movie she’d designed on a knitted surface for the first time. Prior to Tuesday, she’d been unsure of how the two aspects would work together, but was pleasantly surprised by both how the colors mixed and how the project as a whole turned out.
“I really admire the work, dedication and commitment that the students have exhibited in putting together the shows,” Kolster said. “This year’s show is as full of those kinds of surprises and discoveries as previous [shows].”