Senior Show Catalogue Edited

EXHIBITION 2016

Edited by Caroline Chang ‘18, Jenna Wendler ‘17, Casey Harner ‘16, Isabelle Brauer ‘16, and Harlee Mollenkopf ‘17

Gund Gallery Kenyon College Produced in association with 2016

©2016 by the Graham Gund Gallery at Kenyon Col- lege. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form by any means (electronic, mechanical, xerographic, or other) or held in any information storage or retrival system without written permission by the publisher

Gund Gallery www.gundgallery.com Contents

9 Introduction 44 Meg Gardella

12 Jacqueline Arkush 48 Jessye Holmgren-Sidell

16 Maximillian Beatty 52 Chris McCann

20 Garrison Block 56 Dylan Musler

24 Brooks Barwick 60 Elizabeth Norman

28 Dakota Curry 64 Brianne Presely

32 Sophia De Pascuale 68 Natalie Wardlaw

36 Kelsey Ewing 70 Gund Gallery Mission

40 Chloe Friedman 71 About Gund Gallery Associates

Introduction

This year studio art majors have created an impressive array of diverse meaning and media. Unique and personal imagery is emphasized by the department throughout the four-year experience, but students must also find connections to the global and the universal--that essential piece that allows for a strong bond between maker and viewer. This year we are impressed by the spectrum of themes that include the depiction of place, the gothic, magic realism, gender depiction and gender violence, nature and nostalgia, architectonics, and much more. And media that include everything from video projection to Styrofoam.

The capstone experience in studio art is not for the faint of heart. It is a year-long, often difficult journey of visual exploration, experimentation, and production. Despite this, or because of it, our studio alums consis- tently report that the senior exercise was the highlight of their Kenyon careers. Each student produces a small solo exhibit for display in mid- April in the Gund Gallery. The result is a body of work that is portfolio- ready, for application to the best graduate programs in the country, or for application to professional exhibition venues. The opening recep- tion of the senior exhibit is one more way in which Kenyon students light up this community. The faculty in studio art applaud this group of majors for their outstanding achievement.

Read Baldwin Chair, Studio Art

9 Twenty three years ago I was preparing my own senior exhibition in studio art. I remember many late nights in my campus studio preparing an artist’s statement, framing works on paper, finishing paintings, picking up invitation cards and preparing for my oral defense at a small liberal arts college much like Kenyon. Three other staff members of the Gund Gallery have similar memories—they too have bachelor’s degrees in studio art. Teaching philosophies are remarkably consistent in this one feature: a senior exhibition is a central rite of passage for art majors as they complete one phase of their education and move on to a range of advanced degrees, exciting professional opportunities and unexpected adventures. Recently I was asked to research how Kenyon’s senior exhibition compares to many other liberal arts colleges around the country. Since opening in 2011, the Gund has offered more professional museum gallery space per student than any other college in our study, doubling or tripling that offered at other prominent liberal arts schools. Very few academic museums even host student exhibitions. Perhaps because so many of the Gund Gallery’s staff members were art majors we feel a unique attachment and dedication to the senior show. To further expand our support for the senior experience this year, our Gund Associates (museum interns) worked closely this spring with the studio art seniors to produce this beautiful catalogue. As aspiring curators, art historians and cultural administrators, our Associates sought to understand and effectively translate their peers’ ideas, formal challenges and artistic goals. The graduating seniors in studio art have outdone themselves and our student-authors have likewise risen to the occasion. All should be congratulated!

As always, a dedicated team of museum staff and interns have been involved in making this exhibition and catalogue possible. Assistant Director Christopher Yates led the effort, meeting one-on-one with every graduating senior during multiple studio visits and planning meetings, organizing four museum-sponsored workshops with guest experts, designing the exhibition floor plan, solving material, format, lighting and installation problems, guiding the production of the catalogue (the list goes on!)—all while spending hours generously mentoring and encouraging students to think both critically and creatively about their immediate concerns, and the philosophy of studio practice more broadly. Previously an associate professor of studio art and director of foundation studies with extensive background in senior studio art teaching and exhibitions, Chris is an invaluable member of the Gund team. He is to be thanked for his extraordinary expertise and impact. Other staff helped with heavy lifting, technical support, installation, design, printing, signage, catering, event planning, editing, cleaning and so much more and are appreciated fortheir continuous contributions and long hours

Once again, we are proud to present the senior exhibition and look forward to seeing and supporting this annual event alongside a growing array of other student art exhibitions and Gund Associate-curated projects.

Dr. Natalie Marsh, Director Gund Gallery 11 Jackie Arkush

From Los Angeles, California, Jackie Arkush began making art at a young age. Not satisfied with athletics and music, the enjoyment she found in working with her hands trumped all other activities. This discovery became a dedication to the medium of sculpture as shown in her senior thesis.

Along with Studio Art, Arkush is a double major in Anthropology, an important influence on the subject matter of her work. She decided to bring aspects of Other artistic influences include the the two disciplines together in her Studio Chapman Brothers and dollhouses. Her Art senior thesis, and delves into societal early fascination with small-scale reality issues through miniatures. Having previ- developed into a serious utilization of ously used miniatures to explore person- miniatures as a form of artistic expres- al experiences, Arkush broadened the sion. Arkush is confident that art will scope of her expression by representing always be a part of her life, hobby or problems within American culture “to say otherwise. the least.” She would describe her senior thesis as “Macro/Micro,” a reflection of the representation of complex and far reaching issues in such a small scale. 13 Artist Statement

Legacy

I spend a great deal of time reflecting on the concept of culture. Most definitions of culture focus on the hereditary nature of learned behaviors. By this definition, culture can be seen as inherited adap- tations to reoccurring problems or situations. In this way, culture and legacy are tied together. I found myself asking questions about the relation between these two concepts, questions like: What legacy will our current culture leave? What will future generations say about how we live today? In order to answer these questions, I first had to decide for myself which areas of our modern day American culture I find the most problematic. But culture, being the tricky, nebulous concept that it is, is indivisible. No one part of a culture exists sep- arately from the rest of that culture. This is why I chose the issues I did, to me they represent intersections of broken areas in our system and our culture. By the same logic, we are all participants in our culture. This is why in the following statements, I often employ the collective “we” to reflect opinions that I personally hold about our culture.

Each of these small boxes shows a scene that represents what I see to be the major failings in our culture. The issues I address are not new, they have loomed large for many years, and yet in each case I feel that we fail to sufficiently respond to what is directly in front of us. These events and intersections are the culminations of our fractured culture, they are “hot-button” issues that appear in the 24-hour news cycle but when the coverage is over, we place them in small cordoned off areas of our brains. We isolate them as anomalies, term them “acts of disturbed individuals” or even “mistakes”.

At what point do we recognize events as part of a larger pattern? At what point do we realize that we are all complicit in the creation of a collective narrative? And, at what point do we acknowledge that parts of our culture leave behind a damning legacy? 15

Maximillian Beatty

Hailing from Baltimore, Maryland, Max Beatty has been passionate about art ever since he could remember and especially enjoys working with sculp- Max Beatty takes influence from ture. A Philosophy minor and Studio architecture and the built environ- Art major, Beatty names Philosophy ment, which plays into what he of Perception as his favorite course at describes as his “heavily methodi- Kenyon. The class discussion of how we cal” creative process. While Beatty is perceive space and the visual experi- focusing on enjoying his last months ence inspired Beatty in his work for his at Kenyon, after graduation he senior thesis. hopes to pursue architecture.

Artist Statement

This body of work is driven by an innate curiosity about space and the built environment. Heavily influenced by architecture, the work is designed to celebrate structure and form and to provide an interactive experience for the viewer. By engaging the naïve and vulnerable understanding we have about the physical world, I create forms that are tangible anomalies and inspire further investigation as the viewer tries to make sense of each piece’s divisions and contradictions.

This conception of my sculptural work is fundamentally driven by a curiosity about the physical world and the way we experience it.This installation ex- hibits perspectival and structural oddities. The goal is to present a dynamic visual experience that maintains a solid structural presence and engages the way we ‘see’ by exploring basic properties such as line, balance, and repetition.

In the ‘drawing’ series, each piece depicts a form consisting of elements that evoke dimensionality as well as moments that flatten the image. The incoherent overlapping of lines generates a design that blurs the boundary between the two-dimensional and three-dimensional. While the viewer tries to make sense of the form as a structural object, the nature of the drawing fights back to remind us that it in fact has no volume.

19 Garrison Block

Garrison Block grew up in Morristown, New Jersey surrounded by a desire to create. Though he comes from an artistic family, he considered art a pastime before Kenyon, something he only did at home. During his first semester at Kenyon, he enrolled in Sculpture I, which he acknowledges as having helped transform his art from a hobby into a serious practice.

Through the teachings of Studio Art As- sistant Professor Craig Hill, Block learned to work freely and solve problems through experimentation. Block credits Hill’s course, Contemporary Art for Artists, as helping him develop his identity as an artist.

Block’s work requires hours of trial and error. Although predominantly working with photography, Block also creates sculptures from found objects. Block’s creative process requires him to closely observe his sur- roundings. In one phrase, he describes his senior thesis as “look closer.”

For Block, “art is a relative term,” as many professions require some form of creativity. In the future, he hopes to engage in creative work. His current interests are adver- tising, film, and fashion. 21 Artist Statement

In sight

Time is a beautifully transformative tool– manifest here in the de-saturat- ed, dilapidated scenes juxtaposed against the romanticized, color-less figures. While deterioration is evident – the overgrown, rundown, and cluttered scenes invite the eye and mind to envision a previous age. Ten- derness and a mindful human presence seep from the worn paint, rust, and disrepair. A tension provokes feelings of nostalgia and fond reflec- tions of a time lost.

I am struck by peculiar oddities and neglected spaces – forgotten details, aged with beauty and despair. I explore properties, rummaging for unique moments much like I did as a child snooping and sifting through drawers of old photo albums. Old photographs stripped of detail and isolated in time make easy interpretations difficult, and captured, frozen images become ambiguous. Formal, staged and self-aware black and white portraits set alongside domestic scenes force an unfamiliar synthe- sis.

In the rural Midwest, there exists a fleeting character, on the verge of extinction that holds an inexorable erosion of spirit. Delicately hung, the images echo this sentiment. Seen and felt, the figures and environments channel the expendable, temporary essence of existence, creating a somber vision of the vestiges of America in microcosm.

23 Brooks Barwick

Originally interested in writing and music, Brooks Barwick shifted gears to drawing and painting as a creative outlet in his time at Kenyon. A Studio Art Major from Clinton, North Carolina, Barwick credits Art History courses for developing his artistic interests. He specifically cites one of the first courses he took at Kenyon which explored Amer- ican art in in the first half of the 20th century. The deconstruction and inter- For his senior thesis, Barwick showcases pretation of works in this class sparked a natural buildup of form through a series his interest in the abstract language of small paintings, featuring spontaneous of art and its expressive possibilities. patterns etched into wax to keep the pro- Furthermore, Barwick speaks highly of cess “fresh and organic.” the short film “Powers of Ten” by Ray and Charles Eames, finding beauty Following his graduation from Kenyon, in the “microscopic structures” in the Barwick is confident in continuing his art film, which in turn influenced his own through some way, shape or form. abstractions. 25

Artist Statement

Ray and Charles Eames’ 1977 short film “Powers of Ten” begins with a simple bird’s-eye view of a couple picnicking in a Chicago park. The camera is one meter above the scene. Steadily, the view expands in multiples of ten—after ten seconds the same point of focus is shown from 100 feet, after twenty seconds 1000. The perspective continues back into the depths of outer space to show our planet’s place in the solar system and our solar system’s place in the galaxy. The camera then descends back down towards the Chicago park and enters into the hand of one of the picnick- ers, penetrating the outermost layers of skin and continuing into a white blood cell before showing a winding strand of DNA and then a singular atom. The film closes as the particles’ that make up the atom’s nuclease, a swarming cluster of quarks, engulf the screen.

The Eames’ work is a powerful investigation of the way in which we fit into the universe as it displays interesting visual similarities between the macro and the micro. There is an intricate beauty in the microscopic structures that exist inside of all of us, and this beauty is echoed in the cosmic patterns that extend beyond our planet.

I attempt to echo aspects of this beauty in my abstractions. The paintings I make grow organically, with each layer of patterning growing off of and interacting with the surfaces underneath. A finished painting has been guided by the first marks that are made on the panel, similar to how DNA determines the physical qualities of an organism. Each individual piece offers a unique visual experience where color and shape interact to form a space that is claustrophobic in some cases and more empty and dream-like in others.

Multiple layers of imagery are stacked underneath the paintings’ fleshy wax surfaces, with each layer distorting the original drawing while also adding a certain depth. An individual panel contains a space and structure that is neither macro nor micro but influenced by both. Sometimes the relationship between the cosmic and the microscopic is surprisingly ambiguous.

27 Dakota Curry

A studio art major with a minor in physics, Dakota Curry is interested in how narrative is constructed. The stories that inspire him come from his childhood imagination and classical histories such as those rep- resented on Greek figural pottery. He cul- tivated this fascination with storytelling at Kenyon, through courses such as Classics Associate Professor Adam Serfass’ Greek History and Professor of Humanities Tim Shutt’s Celts and Germans of the Modern Age. The courses influenced both his art and life by focusing on “the telling of stories and the nature of ancient cultures.”

When asked to describe his senior thesis, Curry replied: “In one word? Nostalgic.” A self-described storyteller, Curry believes in childhood memories as “the most universal type of story to be told, and nostalgia is shared almost entirely throughout the human race.”

Curry came to Kenyon from Nashville, Tennessee. He hopes to continue study- ing art, particularly digital art, and to attend graduate school for Illustration and Development Art. In the future, Curry would like to follow a career in Concept Art. 29 Artist Statement

“Remembrance of things past is not necessarily remembrance of things as they were.” - Marcel Proust

Nostalgia colors our lives. I have so many memories of childhood which have been skewed by a longing for a simpler time. By missing things, sensations or fond memories of the past, we alter our perceptions of them. The older I grow, the more I miss from my past, but I need to remind myself that the idealistic memories I possess aren’t complete. By their very nature, memories are corrupt. They change over time, fad- ing, changing tone as we age and forget little details. Many people finds themselves filled with nostalgia for “the old days” , and they tend not to remember the harder things, the things they didn’t quite understand as a child, or didn’t learn to prioritize until later. Memory is a form of ideal- ism, self-imposed by the restrictions of desire and nostalgia, that hides all of the dirt and grime of real life. Yet they are still happy memories, and we derive joy in walking back through the halls of our minds, blissfully unaware of (or perhaps repressing) the tension and the struggles that lie just beneath the hazy veil.

Windows is intended to bring to the surface this duality between memory and nostalgia. Bringing together stylized, colorful images reminiscent of the clearer sensations of childhood and an overlying commentary of\ stories forgotten and retold creates a juxtaposition between the two. Ar- ranged as they are, the set imitates a collection of windows, commenting on the nature of a person as audience, rendering viewers passive in their own minds. This sensation creates an environment that fosters contem- plation and invites the viewer to question the nature of their own memories, leading perhaps to no concrete destination, being instead focused on the journey of one’s past. 31

Sophia DePascuale

A longtime resident of Gambier, Ohio, Sophia De Pascuale approached her senior thesis with “manic experimentation.” Starting out with Sharpie markers and a book on Joan Miro, De Pascuale now utilizes media such as acrylic, wood, and “buckets of pre- sumed trash.”

A Studio Art major, her favorite course at Kenyon was Art with a Function taught by Professor Emeritus Barry supports De Pascuale’s summation of Gunderson, who taught her about her senior thesis as “erratic.” “grit,” a lesson she holds onto dear- ly. In terms of artistic influences, De In the future, De Pascuale hopes Pascuale cites “Almodovar movies, to continue working with others Spanish architecture, kitsch knick- in creative endeavors and to “be knacks, and lunch.” This, along with surrounded by wonderful happy the experimental approach to her art people.”

Artist Statement

Allowing an idea or intuition grow beyond its perceived limits is an addic- tively thrilling experience. These pieces began as studies in the manipulation of classic formal elements such as color, composition, mass, shape, and texture. Through an unconscious freedom and an intention to create with a kind of irreverent playfulness, the still recognizable formal elements grew into vessels full of references, moods, and warmth. The piece is created with intentionally conventional materials that are not only ordi- nary, but are also salvaged from scrap bins or old garages. For the sake of being coy nothing is a dead give away, in hopes that the audience will find themselves imprinting upon the colorful, the hard, and the soft.

The hand of an amateur is definitely present in my work. The amateur is very human, in all its flaws and contradictions. The force behind the execution is simultaneously cocky and cautious. The temperament of the creation is excitedly too much but also nervously restrained. The amateur lacks consistency, revealing the person behind the work in the variegated quality of execution. When looking at an object made by an amateur, all its imperfections and, for lack of a better word, quirkiness, speak to the kind of person who created it. In all the ways it strays from the path to perfected form, well known by the practiced and focused master, the colorful and un-manicured human being is revealed.

35 Kelsey Ewing

Citing nature as one of her influences, Kelsey Ewing makes sculptures from found materials. She credits her favorite sculpture class, Art with a Function, as informing the direction of her work. The class taught her how to create practical art and allowed her to reimagine what a conventional chair or table could be.

In addition to nature, Ewing’s other influences include Joseph Walsh, Kaspar Hamacher and Judy Pfaff. Describing her senior thesis installation as “sinuous,” Ewing cites an intuitive creative process as guiding her manipulation of objects to “bring out their natural beauty.”

Ewing hails from Bedford, New Hampshire where she grew up with artistic parents. In addition to Studio Art, Ewing is double majoring in Art History. After graduation she plans on continuing her art by working for an artist or furniture maker. She may also attend graduate school in the near future. 37 Artist Statement

Growing up in New Hampshire, exploring the woods and playing in the mountains has fostered a deep passion and appreciation for the natural world. As a result of my love for the outdoors and the myriad of envi- ronmental classes that I have taken my artwork explores the qualities of nature and humanity’s relationship with the environment. It does through the use of found objects from the outdoors and discarded materials, such as branches and metal, through manipulation and discovery of the under- lying character within each. As a result I construct pieces that composi- tionally convey humanity’s tumultuous relationship with nature.

In this installation my aim is to discuss humanity’s parasitism on the natural world through the use of tree branches in varying states of decay, wire, and metal fencing. The charring of the branches along with the metal creates a heavy distressing feeling juxtaposed to the light sinuous branches above. It demonstrates the suffocating hold modern culture has on the natural world and how once we work with nature and develop a symbiotic relationship it can thrive and enhance our lives as well. 39 Chloe Friedman

From Hastings on Hudson, New York, Chloe Friedman grew up surrounded by an appreciation for the arts and encouragement to create, thanks to her artistic parents. Inspired by her father’s caricatures of coworkers and strangers, Friedman followed suit and started sketching her own friends, family, and classmates.

In Friedman’s time at Kenyon she owes much of her understanding and inspiration to Art History courses, which added context to her preferred medium of oil paints. Specifically, she cites American Photography as one of her favorite courses, which focused on visual theory of representation and view- ership. These notions of separation between image and reality are found in her paintings, which are based on photographs, particularly informing the active, gestural mark-making in her work.

Influenced by media, Friedman sam- pled from television shows and photographs of roller derbies, which she then recreated in her own photographs to use as reference. To go from photo to painting, she created initial sketches on styrofoam, then layered the paint “as much as possible” for the final product. She describes her senior thesis as “Ouch!”

A double major in Studio Art and Art History, Friedman plans on continuing in the arts as an art thief, but don’t tell anyone. 41

Artist Statement

The Trouble with Boys (The Platinum Party Girl, The Sultry Spit- fire, The Cali Cutthroat, The Hot Mess, The Red-Headed Hustler, The Mouth, The Female Fatale, The Loose Canon, The Back- woods Barbie, The Dolled up Dynamite, Hell on Wheels, and The Prankster)

The title of my piece, The Trouble with Boys, comes from an episode of VH1’s reality show Bad Girls Club. This title highlights how the characters in my piece, all women, engage in “un-feminine” behavior despite their hyper-feminized labels. Each character is given a stereotyped epithet that refers to the clichéd persona used to reference characters on Bad Girls Club, and nicknames attributed to roller derby players.

There is something off-putting yet appealing about seeing women fight, and in an attempt to emulate this, I photographed my subjects enacting gestures that mimic these physical clashes. Instead of photographing moving subjects, I posed my subjects in a series of fixed, stereotyped “fighting” forms derived from reality television alterca- tions, physical clashes in roller derby rings, and scenes from comic books.

Painted on wood and then cut out to remove them from narrative context, the figures in my piece are intended to focus the viewer’s at- tention on their extremity of action and intensity of expression. While I paint the figures with a certain degree of naturalism, I placed an emphasis on generalization and expressive brush stroke that draws on the piece’s kitsch sources. The figures detachment mirrors the experience of the viewer, whose perception is displaced as the piece’s lack of context interrupts both the perspectival illusion of painting and the social illusion of the media.

Meg Gardella

Originally from Rowayton, Connecticut, Meg Gardella started producing figura- tive and portrait sketches on her own. When she was a freshman, she enrolled in Studio Art Associate Professor Read Baldwin’s Drawing I class, which is where her formal art training began. She continued taking studio art courses and eventually learned other technical skills. After experimenting with many subject matter for her work. Her work mediums, including photography and explores gestures, actions, and ob- painting, her work was no longer limit- jects that cannot be articulated with ed by a single medium. words. As a painter, she also experi- ments with color and is interested in Gardella considers her time in Studio how color can alter perception. When Art Assistant Professor Craig Hill’s it comes to developing her work, Gar- course, Contemporary Art for Artist, a della is most interested in materials significant milestone in developing her and tools. senior thesis. Through Hill’s course, she was able to focus on her abilities as Her creative process is quite simple: an artist while distinguishing important she goes to her studio and works. When working, she tries to keep a clear mind by not overthinking. By simply working and letting the process instead of a preconceived plan guide her, she is able to accomplish more and “move forward creatively.” Thus, in one phrase, Gardella describes her senior thesis as “push and pull.”

In the future, Gardella plans on pursuing many of her interests and does not want to be limited by anything specific. However, making art will always be a part of her life.

45 Artist Statement

“Each step forward is more difficult and I feel less and less free, until I conclude there is nothing left to do. When according to my standard nothing is wrong anymore, then I stop. Then it is good.” Gerhard Richter

These are boards of insulation foam that I hacked at with various tools, including a drywall saw, two chisels, a hammer, an axe, a fork, and a pull saw, with no use of power tools. Paint was an-other tool, poured and spread erratically. They are products of reactionary and compulsory will; records of a nebulous of movements over time. As such, nothing is precise. Through their creation a history developed, which was subse- quently revealed and concealed with no particular deliberacy. They do not intend to be anything but what they are. 47 Jessye Holmgren-Sidell

From a young age, Jessye Holmgren-Sidell has held an interest in storytelling. She began making illustrations to finish or complete her spoken and written narratives. By visually recreat- ing her stories, Holmgren-Sidell could imagine new worlds for her characters.

At Kenyon, Holmgren-Sidell considers Studio Art Visiting Instructor of Art Ellen Sheffield’s Book Arts course to be a major influence on her senior thesis. Sheffield’s teachings allowed Holmgren-Sidell to formulate her abstract ideas into narratives, and she “loved the storytelling aspect of the work.” Looking to her Book Arts course for inspiration, and drawing upon her childhood love for storytelling, Holmgren- Sidell developed a uniquely narrative art. Describing her creative process as “long, sort of tedious,” Holmgren- Sidell originally planned on using paint before experimenting with various mediums. Her final product resulted in a series of meticulous large pen and ink illustrations.

As an English minor, Holmgren-Sidell has also been able to develop her writing, which has continued to shape her visual art. She cites women artists Jenny Saville, Amy Cutler, and Kara Walker as important influences and plans on continuing her art by eventually pursuing a MFA.

Artist Statement

My work follows a twisted narrative, pulled from childhood fears, anx- iety, and obsessive-compulsive disorder. The girls in my pieces suffer from these same “afflictions.” I use them to attempt to understand the overwhelming need I had to confess all my secrets as a child and give into the urges my mind created to both embarrass and hurt me. Instead of fighting and fearing compulsion, however, these women appear to be haunted by monsters from fairy tales and overwhelming curses cast by witches.

My subjects’ contorted bodies demonstrate the visceral, irrational re- action I had whenever confronted with a wave of ritualistic urges. Still, these women are not supposed to be me. Think of them instead as heroines living out the most tumultuous moments of their own stories. To show that these are continuing narratives, in several of the pieces I elected to draw the would-be victims’ faces with a look of determination and resilience, a sign that in folktales—and real life—enemies, psycho- logical and physical, can be defeated eventually.

51 Christopher McCann

A photographer from Locust Valley, New York, senior Studio Art major Christopher McCann only began making art in his first year at Kenyon. Intending to major in Drama, McCann’s plans changed after taking Sculpture I with Professor Emer- itus Barry Gunderson, who pushed him to continue in the arts. McCann credits Gunderson’s encouragement as the cata- lyst for his artistic endeavors.

McCann cites pop culture and music as major influences on his artistic process, “always listening to music” during shoot- ing as narrative inspiration. For his senior thesis, McCann avoided photographing on Kenyon’s campus, traveling to Man- hattan to get “the right moments” in his work. Due to the collaborative nature of his thesis, communicating and working with others from Gambier to Manhattan, McCann aptly describes his thesis as “hand in hand.

After Kenyon, McCann plans to continue his work in photography, to build a portfolio, and to pitch ideas in his hunt for a job in the entertainment industry. 53 Artist Statement

We are attracted to the new and the idea of fantasy, but we must often separate ourselves from the people around us to get there. I see moments and interactions that suggest this idea every day. Instead of capturing them as I see them, I recreate them in a studio so that I can modify them. I alter the context so that instead of the moment being solely about the individual in the photograph it becomes about memories evoked through their actions. I have conflated poses from my own memory in order to tell a story about three people as they return to a state of innocence, a simple perhaps fantastical state of bliss and purity.

The metal structure that houses the photographs presents them so they are stripped of their intimacy. The human body is celebrated in the images, and the interactions suggest different relationships between the three people, although it is not essential for the connections to be understood. Printing on transparent film allows the viewer to see the photos as the intricate layers become muddled, similar to the memories that formed them. Walking through the installation provides clarity and allows the viewer to study the individual moments presented in radiograph, this is nine. 55 Dylan Musler

A New York City native, Dylan Musler has been creating from a young age. Once, after drawing a picture of a bully in third grade, Musler discovered that “anything can happen in art.” The experience ex- posed her to the realities of “censorship and misrepresentation” when her teacher found the picture. As a Japanese Area Studies and Studio Art double major, much of Musler’s influences stem from Japanese culture, and especially from a Japanese literature class taken her senior year. Though oil paint is her preferred medium, Musler cites literature, Noir, comics and graphic novels, and historic artists as major influences on her work, including Nicole Eisenman, Willem De Kooning, and Rene Magritte. Following Kenyon, Musler hopes to teach English in Japan before pursuing a Master of Fine Arts degree. 57

Artist Statement

“What is it that brings your heart and my heart together? And what is it that parts them?” – Natsume Sōseki

When we think about other people we don’t view them as isolated entities. We see them in the context of their background, friends and/or significant others. Or to put it another way, we tend to perceive an amal- gam of those whom they associate with by circumstance and those whom they associate with by choice. The process of getting to know someone is sorting through their influences. These emotional—and sometimes even physical—bonds are for the most part left unspoken. I think this is where the nature of the self is poetic. At the same time we imagine we unilaterally determine the context others will view us through. In reality the expectations of those we interact with—whether congruent to reality or not—shape our identity.

My work explores how the fluidity of relationships exacerbates this am- biguity. In it I employ dark humor to express the fallout caused by failed expectations but also how the fetishization of a relationship—in and of itself—often creates emotional deformity. Is this why, when we have the agency to deal directly with relationship problems, we so routinely choose to let things fall apart? The impact of that can overwhelm our lives. In order to depict that I decided to grapple with canvases that dwarf me—some nearly 8 feet in size. They are like vivid memories which I compulsively summon but then feel revulsion for. The broad brush strokes echo the vibrancy of the sources from which their titles are derived: Iggy Pop, Nina Simone, and Raymond Chandler.

Overall, these paintings are impressions of moments of all the relationships I have experienced in film, music, literature and other artwork, including of course my own. Dualities of human relationships and identity are explored. There’s cartoon violence, fleeting thoughts of guilt, and most of all layer upon layer of misperception.

59 Elizabeth Norman

Although a Studio Art major, Eliza- beth Norman feels American Studies courses have enhanced her artwork and influenced how she thinks “about the world and [her] place in it.” Her experience in Gender and Domesticity in the United States helped Norman reexamine the way she reads and talks about “the politics of domesticity.” This interest in domesticity informs Norman’s approach to her work.

American video art history inspired Norman to learn about early feminist video artists, including Martha Rosler, From Baltimore, Maryland, Elizabeth Dana Birnbaum, and Hannah Wilke, all Norman praises her mother for creating of whom shaped video art as an artistic an environment where her love of art medium. Other influences include has always been nurtured. After gradua- mass media, comedy, and pop culture, tion, Norman will intern at the National “filtered through a feminist lens.” Gallery in D.C in their video and film archives. She plans to continue art in Her ultimate goal is to “speak to a graduate school and become an active moment, but have that supported by member of local art and comedy scenes. a cultural and historical context.” In When asked what her other plans are, every video piece, she tries “to keep Norman replied, “I don’t really know some improvised element in the per- what to do with kids so I’m planning to formances, which [she] think[s] adds an avoid them for as long as possible, and element of discomfort and danger.” otherwise live, laugh, love.” 61 Artist Statement

“When a woman speaks, she names her own oppression.”- Martha Rosler

Most reactions are involuntary. Given stimulus, you respond; processing comes later. You gasp or you don’t gasp. You laugh or you don’t laugh. You feel that gnawing sensation at the pit of your stomach as your eyes flit away and back or you don’t. Then, you can ask yourself why.

Uncertainty and discomfort are central to my work. I am concerned with the performance of reality, simulating and producing the disconnect between that which is ideal and that which is unsatisfactory, what is relatable and convinc- ing and what is off-putting and awkward. In contrast to the polished, practiced and perfected presentation of the silver screen, I am looking to engage with forms of mass media with less control. Through video, I am attempting to explore the ways our communication breaks down.

Incorporating idiosyncratic vocabulary (both visually and verbally) to situate viewers in a familiar video setting, my art is attempting to fray the edges of what we expect. Building on the legacy of early feminist video artists as well as more recent female video artists like Pipilotti Rist, Kate Gilmore, Hito Stey- erl and Camille Henrot, I hope to produce disruptive, subversive spaces that walk the line between conscious and subconscious. Working through feminist theory in a televisual media, I’m seeking to develop a challenging and darkly comedic avenue to talk about how we watch women, and the space women have to look back and respond. 63

Brianne Presley

Originally from Mount Vernon, Ohio, Brianne Presley’s influences are dance, family and personal experiences. When Studio Art Profes- sor Claudia Esslinger encouraged her to move outside of her comfort zone, Presley started to make connections between two of her passions, art and dance. In her senior thesis, Presley united the two through video. As a double major in Studio Art and Dance, Pres- ley wants to “explore movement (especially in site-specific places), as well as the editing process that comes with video art.”

After graduation, Presley will be teaching art to high school students at Kenyon College’s Camp 4 in June, and then work at the Dance Notation Bureau for three months in New York City. In the future, Presley wants to continue working with both art and dance and plans to go on to graduate school.

Artist Statement

Movement is a common language that connects us all. It captures states of mind and emotional experiences that spoken words alone cannot convey. Growing up as a dancer, I’ve always been inspired by the power of movement. Through its raw emotion and vulnerability, movement is a direct link to our humanity.

With video art, I am able to bridge the gap between my two loves for dance and studio art, and dig deeper into the power of movement through different themes. When making a piece, such as Egress, I choose a site to explore and then develop a score/plan to guide my movement specific to a theme. The score changes spon- taneously throughout the process of discovery, leaving me more vulnerable and making my movement more authentic, further embody- ing the experience and environment around me.

Egress investigates the trajectory of a struggle. I pursue the beauty in the struggle as the piece evolves, and search for an escape from the chaos. I strive to access and transmit emotions directly, hoping that others find personal connections through the language of movement.

67 Natalie Wardlaw

Natalie Wardlaw has loved art ever since she can remember, transitioning from sketching and playing with dolls as a child to formal drawing and painting in high school. At Kenyon, Ward- law reconnected with the creative spirit of her youth through her preferred mediums: 3-D stop motion animation, installation and printmaking. These media were also the focus of the most influential classes Wardlaw took at Kenyon, which encouraged her to experiment with new techniques and develop a better understanding of various production methods. The patience, meticulousness and “imperfect, hand-produced quality of the medium” translated into her senior thesis, for which she works with 3D stop motion animation, “exploring modern spiritualism and its intersection with technological advances.”

A Studio Art major from Providence, Rhode Island, Wardlaw intends to continue pursuing art after graduating from Kenyon. 69 Artist Statement

Phantasme

“It needs, rather, the uncanny pathos, which attaches to the animation of the inorganic.” -Wilhelm Worringer on the necessity of the Gothic.

The resurgence of Spiritualism during the Victorian Era paralleled the women’s suffrage movement in elevating the voices of women. Spiritualist women were given a platform to speak publically by presenting themselves as mediums who could communicate with and conjure up spirits. Their ability to create physical manifestations of the spiritual realm and the unconscious has often been compared to the artist’s process of inspiration and creation.

The rise of phantasmagoria and spiritual conjuring is inextricably linked to the invention of photography and projection. Today, we recognize photography’s subjectivity but, at its onset, the technology was viewed as an objective truth teller. In bourgeois living rooms from Paris to America, Spiritualist séances employed the ability to capture a spirit on film as a leading defense against skeptics.

The stop-motion film projected here heightens the paradox of photography as both unbiased observer and instrument of deceit. Individual still frames compile to create the illusion of movement. Animation offers the ability to make the unreal real, to bring the inanimate, the dead, and the imaginary to life.

Like cameras, our memories are far from objective recorders. To create the surreal landscape that the film’s characters inhabit, I drew from my own collection of objects – trinkets, souvenirs, and gifts. Together, these objects create a physical manifestation of memory. The set calls upon the Gothic preoccupation with looking away from the future and back towards the past. The conjured past becomes its own original creation. This retreat into a past that never existed is both a form of escapism into an aestheti- cally beautiful terrain and an attempt to tap into the repressed depths of the unconscious. 71 Gund Gallery Mission

The Gund Gallery celebrates the power of art as a critical cen- terpiece of Kenyon’s liberal arts mission and our community. We champion the best art and artists of the 20th and 21st centuries via an active exhibition schedule, expanding permanent collection, and formal and informal learning experiences. About Gund Gallery Associates

This catalog was produced under the guidance of Gund Gallery museum staff members and students participating in the Gund Gallery Associates Program at Kenyon College.

The Gund Gallery Associate Program offers Kenyon students an oppor- tunity to complement their formal liberal arts education with meaningful, career experiences and informal learning opportunities. Working with museum professionals, Gund Gallery Associates are able to participate in all aspects of museum work including behind-the-scenes operations, curatorial research and planning, collection maintenance and educational outreach. An extension of the classroom, the program integrates theory with practice by building and promoting collaboration and exchange between students, faculty and community.