AAP

Night Light: Beauty in Methodologies

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Taught by Professor Jean Locey in the fall of 2017, ART 3604: Alternative Processes offers a stunning collection of works in Night Light, an exhibition held in Tjaden Hall. The class was an exploration of non-lens based photographic processes, centering around the creation of imagery through the painting of  photosensitive emulsion on paper followed by a subsequent exposure to light. Kylie Corwin ’18, one of the five featured artists,  remarks that, “this class challenges our contemporary perception of photography as a medium by teaching analog techniques that are not only historic but also labor intensive, thus enriching our appreciation for the physicality and vastness of the photographic medium.”

Originally used for the reproduction of diagrams and notes, the cyanotype is a photographic printing process that results in products with varying intensities of the titular cyan shade — hence the term, blueprint. However, the technique has since been extensively utilized by artists for a multitude of intentions. Jérai Wilson ’20 features this method in Recycled.

art

Beauty in the Unfinished: Drawing the Line

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Drawing the Line, open until June 10 at the Johnson, displays over a century of drawing history from European artists. In particular, the exhibit celebrates both the drawing as a sovereign entity as well as an often-ignored component of the artistic process in its entirety. In this way, Drawing the Line forces the audience to closely reevaluate pre-existing notions of where and how beauty is to be found. A drawing technique with a history of over six centuries, gouache differs from watercolor in that it produces a distinctly more opaque finish. In an untitled composition from 1915, Pablo Picasso intermingles both gouache and watercolors.

News

Images of Glaciers From C.U. Expeditions on Display

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Striking images of various glaciers taken during Cornell expeditions to Greenland and Alaska from 1896 to 1911 have recently been digitized through a $40,000 arts college grant and are on display in the Mann Library gallery until early next year. The images in the exhibition, “Historic Ice: Alaska and Greenland’s Glaciers Through the Lens of the Cornell Expeditions 1896-1911,” were selected from a collection of over 2,000 photos from expeditions led by renowned geologist Prof. Ralph Stockman Tarr, dynamic geology and physical geography. Most of the photos, which will be on display until Jan. 31 next year, have not been seen in over 100 years, according to Prof. Matthew Pritchard, earth and atmospheric sciences. In addition to the photos from the expeditions that feature the glaciers and trip members, Cornell Archives also possesses some of the equipment used in the trips, with one of the cameras from the trip on display in the exhibit, according to Pritchard.

cartoon

ILR Students Protest Labor Cartoon Exhibit

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Student pushback to a number of political cartoons displayed in Ives Hall, and the alleged theft of one of the pieces, has prompted a discussion about freedom of speech and political discourse in the School of Industrial and Labor Relations and around campus. Gary Huck and Mike Konopacki, two of the leading labor cartoonists in the country, were invited to the ILR Labor Roundtable, hosted by the school on Nov. 13. The event is held annually to show students ways they can become professionally involved in the labor rights and social justice movements, and consistently features guest artists. 

As in previous years, the artists’ work was installed in a temporary exhibit on the first floor of Ives Hall, but this year some of the pieces made students uncomfortable, leading some to request their removal, according to Prof. Kate Bronfenbrenner, industrial and labor relations. Students contacted student services to express their discomfort, particularly with two of the pieces: one featuring the GOP elephant with its trunk up a woman’s skirt and another with a swastika superimposed on the confederate flag, according to Bronfenbrenner.

Cornell

Group Brings Exhibition to Campus Highlighting Survivors of Abuse

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Aiming to raise awareness of the commercial sexual exploitation of children, “More Than a  Survivor: More Than a Story” — a photo project featuring the portraits of 22 women who are survivor leaders from across the country — opened to the public Monday in the Willard Straight Hall Art Gallery. The exhibit has taken more than a year of effort from Cornell organization Students Against the Sexual Solicitation of Youth — also known as SASSY  — and is a traveling photo project that offers an alternative narrative for victims of commercial sexual exploitation or domestic trafficking. At the opening reception for the exhibit, SASSY co-president Shiwani Bisht ’16 explained in her speech that the exhibit was based on “Survivor Leader Transition” or the the concept that survivors of sexual exploitation are more than their traumas. “The women in the photographs around us are beautiful, empowered and successful people who are more than a collection of traumatic events,” Bisht said. “They have become leaders by telling their stories, sharing their growth and combating commercial sexual exploitation in their own distinct way.”
Bisht then cited several examples of how the women in the photographs had overcome their traumas to become leaders in the arts, in science, in politics and even by fighting and protecting other victims of commercial sexual exploitation.