THE COLLEGE MAGAZINE

Winter 2021 Supplement to The University of Magazine

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Painting by Tess Teodoro, Class of 2021; photo illustration by Michael Vendiola anything except abrush. was to apply paintwith 12). Theassignment Art Imitates Life,” page En PleinAir(see “When course Painting Matters: for theAutumn Quarter 2021, created thispiece Tess Teodoro, Class of 1/20/21 2:23 PM From the editor HOME INSIDE ALONE “How can you have a newspaper,” an anonymous SHORT commentator asked in the October 18, 1918, issue of the Daily Maroon, “when the Art: College students collaborate with world-renowned artist Jenny influenza does away with Holzer, EX’74, on LED trucks · Top 5: Scented candles that evoke 2 every sort of activity that Chicago neighborhoods Quote: “I am no longer an Episcopal priest ... ” ever happened?” · After an Autumn Quarter without sports, concerts, or parties, we might ask the MEDIUM same question. Even gossip was canceled, as Dean John W. Boyer, AM’69, PhD’75, UChicago creature: Pascal the ring-necked dove · UChicago history: observed: “No one gossips Songs of the , an unexpected pleasure in a difficult 4 on Zoom.” year · Faculty: In honor of the newly named Hanna Holborn Gray Three-quarters of College Special Collections Research Center, eight of our favorite HHG anecdotes students returned to Hyde Park, but they were almost · Public policy: What if cities took the lead on sustainability? invisible. Everywhere that students usually gather, this year they didn’t. But despite the difficult ci cumstances, LONG the students of 2020–21 still managed to create moments of joy. WHEN ART IMITATES LIFE 12 Elma Ling Hoffman, Class A professor known for installation art takes her painting class outside. of 2021, adopted a rescue dove, Pascal, and brought him along when she studied on the quad. THROUGH STUDENT EYES 18 Vera Soloview, Class of Photographers Fatou Ndoye and Vera Soloview, both Class 2023, couldn’t play rugby, but the team competed with of 2023, show us what Autumn Quarter was like. other schools on fitne s challenges. Her push-up max: 62 in two minutes. Fatou Ndoye, Class of “WE SHALL EVERY ONE BE MASK’D” 22 2023, couldn’t dance with Classes outdoors and in tents. Masks worn everywhere, even the hip-hop club EX Crew, so by the grotesques. Scenes from an Autumn Quarter that she danced in her bedroom required improvisation. by herself. “It’s taken a lot of creativity to figu e out what I like to do this quarter,” she said. Read more about MOUNTAIN TIME 30 students’ resilience starting First-year cross-country runners start the academic year off with an on page 4. altitude adjustment. —Carrie Golus, AB’91, AM’93

ET CETERA The University does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, Lyrics: “1893” by F. Frank Steigmeyer, PhB 1897 Map: Tents on sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, · 34 national or ethnic origin, age, status as campus · Comic: Strange Planet by Nathan Pyle an individual with a disability, protected veteran status, genetic information, or other protected classes under the law. Front cover: Painting by Mercedes Cardenas, Class of 2021. For additional information, please see Back cover: UChicago Photographic Archive, apf2-05135, University of Chicago Library. equalopportunity.uchicago.edu.

THE CORE · Supplement to the Winter 2021 issue of the University of Chicago Magazine

EDITOR CONTRIBUTING WRITERS CONTRIBUTING EDITORS 773.702.2163 Carrie Golus, AB’91, AM’93 Susie Allen, AB’09 Laura Demanski, AM’94 [email protected] Jeanie Chung Mary Ruth Yoe mag.uchicago.edu/thecore ART DIRECTOR Lucas McGranahan Guido Mendez The Core is published twice a year as a COPY EDITOR supplement to the University of Chicago DESIGNER Rhonda L. Smith Michael Vendiola Magazine by the University of Chicago. © 2021 University of Chicago.

Winter 2021 / 1

COM_21_FY21_CORE_February_2021_TOC_v7.indd 1 1/20/21 2:23 PM UChiVotes undergraduate voting ambassadors, who encouraged their peers to vote early, pose with one of Jenny Holzer’s trucks.

Art

VOTER THE VOICE OF THE PEOPLE DO YOU WANT THE FUTURE REGISTRATION CANNOT BE SILENCED TO BE DIFFERENT? DRIVE YOU’RE NOT OVERREACTING AT THIS POINT HOW COULD VOTE BECAUSE THEY DON’T YOU NOT? On two days in late October, a small WANT YOU TO fleet of LED trucks drove around the I REGRET BELIEVING THAT MY city, displaying forceful get-out-the- HAPPY? VOTE DIDN’T MATTER vote messages. YOUR BIRTHRIGHT IS MY IF YOU DON’T USE YOUR VOTE The trucks were part of YOU BE MY LIFE’S DESIRE NOBODY WILL ALLY, a collaborative art piece by world- DO MORE THAN MAIL IT IN renowned artist Jenny Holzer, EX’74. YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO

More than 70 nonpartisan messages, LET THE WORLD REVERBERATE REMAIN VIBRANT , 2020 LED truck. Text: University of Chicago students. Chicago, , USA. YOUR VOICE written by UChicago students, VOTE LIKE YOUR CHILDREN appeared on the trucks anonymously APATHY IS UNACCEPTABLE ARE WATCHING and in all caps—like the text in all of Holzer’s works. Here are some VOTE LIKE NOBODY’S WATCHING VOTE TO DECIDE WHICH WAY

examples.—Carrie Golus, AB’91, AM’93 VOTE IT’S FREE! WE GO NEXT! YOU BE MY ALLY © Jenny Holzer, member Artists Rights Society (ARS), Photo: NY. Christopher Dilts

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NEIGHBORHOOD 1. Hyde Park (Cantara’s neighborhood, 2013–18) CANDLES “The nostalgic scent of Hyde Park’s many Top bookstores and libraries, with notes of leather, Annie Cantara, AB’17 Here are the top five patchouli, and musk.” (comparative human sellers at her company, development), makes soy Vicinity Candles, and what candles that smell like inspired each one. 2. Lakeview (where she lived 2018–20) Chicago neighborhoods. —Carrie Golus, AB’91, AM’93 “The cool summer breeze swirling off of Lake Michigan, with notes of rain water, jasmine, and citrus.”

3. Lincoln Park (her current neighborhood) “The fresh scent of spring’s arrival in Lincoln Park, with notes of grass, bamboo, and bergamot.”

4. West Loop “The delicious scent wafting from the Blommer Chocolate factory with notes of chocolate, vanilla, and walnut.”

5. Pilsen “A walk through Pilsen with a cup of Mexican hot

Photo courtesy Annie Cantara, AB’17 chocolate, with notes of cinnamon, vanilla, and cream.”

“I am no longer an Episcopal priest. I am a content provider.” —Maurice Charles, MDiv’90, PhD’13, Dean of , on adjusting to Zoom during 2020 Video courtesy Bucknell University, screenshot by Michael Vendiola

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COM_21_FY21_CORE_February_2021_Short_v8.indd 3 1/20/21 2:23 PM UChicago creature to have a white variation. In the When people meet this guy, wild they’re brown. they’re surprised he’s cuddly. A DOVE OF He’ll coo if he wants attention. How did you get the idea to He’s not that smart though. He’ll MANY NAMES keep a dove? coo at anything that is vaguely Fourth-year Elma Ling his size and light in color. Hoffman, an art history I nanny for the most wonderful Also, doves kiss. They’ll and religious studies major, family, and they have four gently peck you with their chooses an apt companion. parakeets. I tutor the kids in violin beaks. He’ll do that to me, and languages—French, Japanese, but also when I’m FaceTiming and a little bit of Russian. someone he recognizes. He’ll At the beginning of an The seven-year-old is bow and coo and peck at them. unseasonably warm Autumn learning violin. When we They’re really very warm pets. Quarter, Elma Ling Hoffman, play together, the parakeets Also super inexpensive. This guy Class of 2021, was occasionally sing along. So I was like, I’m cost $25. seen studying on the quads with a musician, I need a bird to her pet dove, Pascal, aka P.G. accompany me. I’m also an art Did it take a while for him Tips, El Greggo, and a growing history and religious studies to adjust? list of sobriquets. major. You see infinite paintings The Core tracked Hoffman with the Virgin Mary and a When I first got him, my down through Pascal’s little dove. roommate had a cat. He was in Instagram account. He was a separate room, but the room present throughout the Zoom Where did you get him? had a glass door, and the cat interview, either perched on would come … it was like cat Hoffman’s finger or wandering A rescue in Waukesha television. I think that might around his cage. [Wisconsin] called CARE, Center have stressed Pascal out. for Animal Rehabilitation and Doves tend to bond fairly Interview has been edited Education. I have a friend who quickly to their owners. They’re and condensed. sews sails for boats. He was recommended for children and like, I’m going up there for work elderly people—almost like anyway. Let’s get you that dove emotional support animals. He You keep the cage door open? for your birthday. just sits and coos and loves. He So we walk in and there’s can’t even bite if he tried. Which Most of the time. When I leave, birds everywhere. Macaws, is a big thing with parrots, I’ll close it. Otherwise I let him cockatiels and cockatoos, because parrots can nip. wander as he pleases. lovebirds, parrots. It was super loud. All the parrots screaming. How do doves wind up at Could you explain the difference I go over to the dove section, a rescue? between a dove and a pigeon? and I was like, oh yeah. This is a sound I like. I wanted the Sometimes people are They’re part of the same genus. melodious coo. careless. If you own multiple In French it’s colombe for both. doves and keep them together, He’s a bit smaller than a rock How many were there to you’re going to end up with pigeon, like you would see under choose from? baby doves. the 55th Street bridge. And they are often pets for He’s a ring-necked dove, He was number 19. Something elderly people—like with this guy, which is a species that originated in the face told me this is the his parents were at the shelter in Africa. These guys were bred right bird. too. Their owner had died.

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COM_21_FY21_CORE_February_2021_Medium_v8.indd 4 1/20/21 2:23 PM “When people meet this guy, they’re surprised he’s cuddly.” —Elma Ling Hoffman, Class of 2021

A photo of Pascal from his Instagram account, @pg.dove. Read a longer version of this interview at mag .uchicago.edu/pascal.

What does he eat? day. Carrots are good. Apple, Sometimes. Sometimes he’ll lettuce, parsley. You want flutter his wings. Or he’ll sit Bird seed mix and mineral to make sure they get their down and be a little loaf of dove grit, which is crushed-up vitamins A and C. bread. Just very fluffy. He’ll oyster shells, as a calcium squint as well. That’s a sign supplement. Fresh fruits and Does Pascal coo when you play he’s happy.

Photo courtesy Elma Ling Hoffman, Class of 2021 veggies at least every other violin, like you hoped? —Carrie Golus, AB’91, AM’93

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COM_21_FY21_CORE_February_2021_Medium_v8.indd 5 1/20/21 2:23 PM UChicago football coach of the Big Ten era. The gatefold album included photos of the two Last September, I returned to fraternities that recorded the Harper Court, where the Core songs: Kappa Alpha Psi, 1949 has its offices, for the first time winner of the Interfraternity since March. I had been granted Sing, and Phi Gamma Delta, 1948 special permission to retrieve winner. The lyrics, including “Alma files from my desk. Mater,” “The Song of the ‘C,’” and I almost forgot to check the “1893” (see page 34) were printed mail room. There I discovered a inside the back cover. package from Maurice S. Mandel Mandel, AB’56, AB’57, came of New York City, postmarked to UChicago at age 15 in 1951 (he March 17—four days after our told me later on the phone) on UChicago history offices closed for the pandemic. a half-tuition scholarship from “Dear Ms. Golus,” read the the Ford Foundation. After he handwritten letter inside, “A joined the yearbook staff, he won A SURPRISE search of my archives resulted in a journalism scholarship that this ‘find.’ … Please accept it as a covered the rest. He is no relation PACKAGE token of appreciation for all you to the Mandels of Mandel Hall: FROM 1950 and your colleagues do to keep “I can’t tell you how many times us old-timers in the loop.” I was asked that question,” he Songs of the The “find” was Songs of the says, “and wished I could have University of Chicago, University of Chicago, a two- responded positively.” an unexpected pleasure record 78-rpm set dedicated A stack of the albums had

Photography by Michael Vendiola in a difficult year. to , famed been left behind in Ida Noyes,

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COM_21_FY21_CORE_February_2021_Medium_v8.indd 6 1/20/21 2:23 PM “We were very much into singing. Fraternity songs, University of Chicago songs.” —Maurice S. Mandel, AB’56, AB’57

where the yearbook had its offices. The album, organized by the Student Union and funded left Big Ten glory behind: Stagg by a donation from Charles K. retired in 1932, varsity football McNeil, PhB 1925, seems to have was dropped in 1939. But the a temporary, two-year campus been a one-off. According to an old songs were preserved in on Navy Pier after World War ad in the October 1950 University the annual Interfraternity Sing. II, primarily for veterans on the of Chicago Magazine, it cost “Visions of a gay and colorful GI Bill. This later became the $2.85 postpaid. crowd overflowing University of Illinois at Chicago.) When Mandel pledged Delta on autumn Saturday afternoons “Navy Pier had a rather weak Upsilon and moved into its house, comes [sic] to many moist eyes,” team that year. Someone got the he brought a few copies of the noted a Chicago Maroon article idea we ought to come out and album with him. “We were very on the 1949 IF Sing, which Stagg cheer like we were a Big Ten team. much into singing,” he says. himself attended. “The so-called “That spirit spread like wildfire “Fraternity songs, University collegiate spirit Chancellor [Robert across the campus. There was a of Chicago songs,” which they M.] Hutchins booted off the bonfire in the main quadrangle, learned from the record. Mandel’s quadrangles along with football a conga line, and lots of singing. range is somewhere between was intercepted by the fraternities.” Bartlett Gymnasium filled with tenor and baritone. “That’s a hard As for athletic boosterism, fans. There were cheers going question to answer when you have Mandel says, “I recall very fondly up: ‘Beat Navy Pier, beat Navy a voice like mine,” he says. “I can an evening when our basketball Pier.’ And the U of C won for the carry a tune most of the time.” team, which hadn’t won a game first time in years. That was a When the album was made, in years, was playing Navy Pier.” good fun time.” the University had long since (The University of Illinois set up —Carrie Golus, AB’91, AM’93

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COM_21_FY21_CORE_February_2021_Medium_v8.indd 7 1/20/21 3:46 PM Faculty 3. She essentially held two roles at once: president A HANNA GRAY and president’s wife. For University events, she writes, “I did the MISCELLANY planning and oversight of dinners and receptions, Seven anecdotes from a barrier- selected the menus, and arranged the seating”— breaking academic career. traditionally the bailiwick of the presidential wife. Gray was unbothered: “I like doing those things.”

In November UChicago president Robert J. 4. She worked to preserve the work of another Zimmer announced the renaming of the library’s pioneering woman, Marion Talbot, the first Special Collections Research Center in honor dean of women for the entire University. of Hanna Holborn Gray, the Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus of History Gray asked the University of Chicago Press to and president emeritus of the University. It’s the reissue More than Lore: Reminiscences of Marion latest in a career of accolades for the Renaissance Talbot (1936), Talbot’s history of the University’s historian, Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient, early days, and wrote the 2015 edition’s introduction. and author of An Academic Life ( Press, 2018) and Searching for Utopia: 5. The University was on the brink of fiscal Universities and Their Histories (University of disaster when she arrived. California Press, 2012). To celebrate the latest feather in her cap, here are a few of our favorite An economic downturn had the University’s stories about the inimitable Mrs. Gray. budget stretched to its limits. In response, Gray raised tuition, expanded College enrollment, increased financial aid, and created a centralized 1. Making an entrance. budget office, measures that helped the University weather a perilous moment. In the 1950s women could enter Harvard’s faculty club only through the side door. As a young 6. Convocation got to her too. assistant professor of history, Gray recounts in her 2018 memoir, An Academic Life, she simply flouted Presiding over convocations was a highlight of the rule when attending departmental meetings, her presidential calendar, she said in 2017. “There’s entering through the main door alongside her male a dignity and beauty about the ceremony that colleagues. No one stopped her. I always enjoyed. Each time I saw that student in front of me, to whom I was going to hand a 2. She got used to being a Hyde Park celebrity. degree, it was a joyful occasion.”

“Much interest was shown in my domestic life and 7. About that portrait in … arrangements,” she writes in An Academic Life. At the grocery store, shoppers would “look with She appreciates the gesture but has never been a undisguised curiosity into my shopping cart.” She fan, she admitted in 2017. “I feel it makes me look once spotted “a distinguished professor of law” meaner than I am. … It was kidnapped twice, and I looking into her garage, “presumably to find out thought it was a pity it was recovered.” what kind of car we drove.” —Susie Allen, AB’09

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UChicago Photographic Archive, apf1-06525, University of Chicago Library Chapel in1978. in Rockefeller to herinauguration president, walking (and first woman) UChicago’s tenth Hanna HolbornGray, Winter 2021 / 9 Winter 1/20/21 2:23 PM Public policy WHAT IF CITIES TOOK THE LEAD? Two College alumni, working in New York City, sparked a global trend in tracking sustainability.

Ending hunger and poverty. Office of International Affairs “The VLR process was Achieving gender equality (Hiniker) and the Office of immensely valuable for worldwide. Tackling climate Operations (Steinberg)—took identifying our strengths and change on a global scale. their combined skills and savvy. relative weaknesses as a city,” These are just a few of the “Alex galvanized this effort,” Steinberg says. In addition, says 17 Sustainable Development Steinberg says. “The Mayor’s Hiniker, “This is meant to be an Goals—also known as the Global Office for International Affairs opportunity for NYC to learn Goals—adopted by all United has been around for a while, from other cities, not just a way Nations member states in 2015. managing the city’s relationship to show off what the city is Meeting these ambitious with the UN and diplomats. doing well.” targets by 2030 as planned will ... Alex transformed it into The idea quickly spread: as of require action and cooperation, a clearinghouse for global 2020, at least 30 localities had not only from nations, but policy ideas, and that was a conducted VLRs, including cities also from local governments— prerequisite for the city taking such as Los Angeles and Mexico especially in major cities. The on something of this magnitude.” City and regions such as Spain’s fact that more and more cities “The city was already doing Basque Country and several are tracking their progress on its own report on sustainability,” counties in Kenya. the Global Goals can be credited Hiniker says. “Why not produce In contrast, the United in significant part to the work of a report for the whole world to States has not committed to two College alumni: Alexandra learn from? I approached Dan a Voluntary National Review. Hiniker, AB’02, and Daniel about it first, because he was a (Last year 47 countries Steinberg, AB’00. mastermind about metrics. We submitted national reviews, Four years ago, when Hiniker went to our bosses, and they with many of the world’s most and Steinberg were colleagues met and agreed to it.” powerful notably absent.) at the City of New York, they New York City released its first Indeed, one benefit of the local created something new: a VLR in 2018. Focusing on the five reviews is that they allow cities Voluntary Local Review (VLR). Global Goals the UN had set as to step up and coordinate with The idea was inspired by the priorities that year—clean water other global actors, even when Voluntary National Reviews that and sanitation, affordable and their home countries do not. many countries were already clean energy, sustainable cities “Now there are more than 200 submitting to the UN on their and communities, responsible local governments around the sustainability efforts. But a consumption and production, world that have committed to review like this had never been and life on land—the report’s Voluntary Local Review,” Hiniker done at the city level. methodology and findings are says. “This is the way the world Launching the project from available for anyone to read. The is communicating using the their respective arms of the report explains not only what framework of the Sustainable city’s bureaucracy—the Mayor’s policies worked but also why. Development Goals.”

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COM_21_FY21_CORE_February_2021_Medium_v8.indd 10 1/20/21 2:23 PM In 2018 Alexandra Hiniker, AB’02, and Daniel Steinberg, AB’00, represented New York City at a conference in Guangzhou, China, where the city’s Voluntary Local Review program was awarded the Guangzhou International Award for Urban Innovation.

After graduating from the College with a degree in history, Steinberg worked for a New York state senator, then completed “The city was already doing a master’s in urban planning at its own report on sustainability. . He says that “the pandemic has been all Why not produce a report for consuming” in his current work the whole world to learn from?” at the City of New York: “In many ways, we’re still in response —Alexandra Hiniker, AB’02 mode.” Although this year’s VLR has been delayed, the city is still committed to producing one. Hiniker, who majored in removal in Laos, Cambodia, Mellon University in Pittsburgh. international studies, completed and Lebanon. More recently Within the year, she had overseen a master’s in Central and she earned a master’s in urban Carnegie Mellon’s production Eastern European studies policy from Hunter College. of the world’s first Voluntary at Jagiellonian University In early 2020, Hiniker left University Review and helped in Poland, then worked for the City of New York to pursue Pittsburgh produce its first VLR.

Photo courtesy Guangzhou Award Secretariat Award Guangzhou courtesy Photo land mine and cluster bomb sustainability initiatives at Carnegie —Lucas McGranahan

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COM_21_FY21_CORE_February_2021_Medium_v8.indd 11 1/20/21 2:23 PM WHEN ART IMITATES LIFE During a quarter when everything was different, a professor known for installation art took her painting class outside.

Photography by Jason Smith By Carrie Golus, AB’91, AM’93

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COM_21_FY21_CORE_February_2021_Long_v9.indd 12 1/20/21 2:23 PM ast quarter Jessica Stockholder was supposed to teach the course Painting Matters. When COVID-19 upended everything, Stockholder, the LRaymond W. and Martha Hilpert Gruner Distinguished Service Professor of Visual Arts, had the idea of adapting her syllabus for an open-air painting course. At the beginning of Autumn Quarter, the College offered three-week intensive courses—the equivalent of a standard 10-week course. “It struck me,” says Stockholder, “that an en plein air class would work for that three- week period, when the weather might accommodate it.” Her adapted course, Painting Matters: En Plein Air, met in the morning until noon, three times a week. During the first week, when all College classes were remote, students painted at home. For the in-person classes, they gathered at the Logan Center, then found a spot to paint on the Midway. Most of the 14 students were nonmajors, though they all had taken a painting course before. Traditional landscape paintings, created from observation, are not the type of work that Stockholder is known for—although sometimes she does create work that involves the outdoors. For an early piece, My Father’s Backyard (1983), Stockholder hung a spray-painted

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COM_21_FY21_CORE_February_2021_Long_v9.indd 13 1/20/21 2:23 PM “Consciousness is constructed to edit our perceptions. So art is an opportunity to slow down and ask questions about the editing.” —Jessica Stockholder

mattress on the side of her father’s How was your course different from a Jessica Stockholder with garage and mounted a cupboard door traditional plein air painting class? Rose’s Inclination, on the roof with chicken wire. In 2009 an installation she created an installation, Flooded It wasn’t focused on how to become a in the lobby and sculpture garden of Chambers Maid, in New York’s Madison mimetic painter. About halfway through the Smart Museum. Square Park, that included a brightly I said to my students, you might be Stockholder has exhibited her work colored triangular platform and blue wondering what the course has to do at the Renaissance rubber mulch. Office workers took with landscape, given the assignments. Society, the Whitney Museum, breaks there, and the local children The assignments were very formal in the Venice played on it. Some artists might not nature, asking students to pay attention Biennale, and the have appreciated that, but Stockholder to the artifice of picture making. Centre Pompidou in Paris, among “enjoyed the variety of audiences that When you move through life, you many other venues. intersected the work.” can’t notice everything. Consciousness In her site-specific installations is constructed to edit our perceptions. So Stockholder uses lots of paint, but she art is an opportunity to slow down and applies it “evenly and opaquely, as a ask questions about the editing. Why do housepainter would do it,” according we edit, and how do we edit? to the monograph Jessica Stockholder I’m interested in visuality and how (Phaidon Press, 1995). She had never thinking and ideas are formally related taught a plein air class before, or to embodied experience. In the fall, even taken one. Nonetheless her the landscape changes so quickly. All students raved about the course and the trees were changing color. It was a her teaching—“excellent,” “amazing,” way of being in time, collectively, and “incredible”—and were deeply grateful, noticing that shift. I hadn’t foreseen that, during this strange and unprecedented but it was really lovely. quarter, for the “break from isolation” and “the much-needed sunlight.” What was the hardest thing about teaching the course?

The following interview with Stockholder It was difficult—and at a distance, where

Photography by Elisabeth Hogeman Elisabeth by Photography has been edited and condensed. they’re not all together—to challenge the

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COM_21_FY21_CORE_February_2021_Long_v9.indd 14 1/20/21 2:23 PM students’ preconceptions of what plein For one at-home assignment, you Clockwise from air painting should be. had them tape a sheet of acetate on top left: Collin When you are in a classroom a window and draw on it. Amelsberg, Class of 2023; Defne gathered together, it’s like parallel play Anlas, Class of among babies. Babies don’t talk to each I learned that from Laura Letinsky 2021; Tess Teodoro, Class of 2021; and other, but they are very responsive to [professor of visual arts]. She uses it in Stephanie Valencia, each other. An art classroom is like that. relation to photography. Class of 2021, focus The acetate frames a view. Then, on their work. The The students are always seeing what the course benefi ed others are doing and in this way they with a marker, you draw what you’re from unusually mild learn from each other. So that’s a real seeing. But of course, if you move even a autumn weather. loss in this COVID moment. fraction of an inch, everything changes. And each of your eyes sees something Do you tell the students about your different. Many of the students ended up own work, or assume they’re going using just one eye. to google? It’s an assignment that lets you see that realistic depictions—what we call I don’t usually; only if they ask. I tell realistic depictions—have nothing to them I really love color, because I do. do with how we actually see the world. I don’t think they usually google me, You’re always seeing the world with two actually. At the undergrad level, they’re eyes, so your point of view is already swimming in such complications of multiple, and no one stays absolutely

Photography by Jason Smith their own. still without moving their head a

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COM_21_FY21_CORE_February_2021_Long_v9.indd 15 1/20/21 2:24 PM ARTIST STATEMENTS Students explain their work.

Top row Timnah Rosenshine, Class of 2022: “This painting was a study on scale. It was one of the more challenging assignments of the quarter— to both represent scale and invert it.” For the same assignment, Tess Teodoro, Class of 2021, focused on the Logan Center and leaves, “fl ttening both objects into 2D line drawings, overlaid upon one another, in hypersaturated versions of the colors.”

Middle row Defne Anlas, Class of 2021, painted “one of my favorite views in Chicago, Grant Park overlooking the skyline. I wanted to experiment with points and textures.” An abstract piece by Mercedes Cardenas, Class of 2021, was inspired by the trees on the Midway. She omitted their trunks, creating a “flo ting line of what looked like cotton candy.” (See full painting on the cover.)

Bottom row M. J. Harvey, Class of 2021, had fun “messing with perspective by combining two and three dimensions. The most challenging thing about creating this collage was stopping the process— I kept wanting to add more elements.” Perri Wilson, Class of 2021, painted the stairs of Taft House. “Since we had to paint a few quick pieces that day, I had to rush and couldn’t overthink,” she says. “I liked how unstable the fina product turned out, like the stairs might blow away.”

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COM_21_FY21_CORE_February_2021_Long_v9.indd 16 1/20/21 4:00 PM “Realistic depictions—what we call realistic depictions— have nothing to do with how we actually see the world.” —Jessica Stockholder

fraction. You’re always putting together brushwork at all, and the colors a whole bunch of views of the world. are different for everyone, depending on their screens. During one of the outdoor sessions, you had students lay down a background Entirely different. That’s always a color. Some chose really bright problem teaching art. At least they backgrounds, like hot pink. That seems usually get to see each other’s work. challenging, to start with a color that’s But teaching about the history of art not even in the landscape. and trying to share contemporary work with them—right now you can’t even It’s arbitrary to start with a white ask them to go to a museum. That’s not background, and it’s a very traditional a fair ask. practice in oil painting to start with a background color. It’s not usually Were there any unexpected challenges, a bright color. It’s usually a more beyond the initial lack of paint? subdued color that inflects the painting moving forward. I didn’t really think through what we What happened in this class—it’s would do if the weather was horrific. I always challenging to order materials— imagined an intrepid group of students the students needed to be able to carry who would be out there rain or shine. their materials, so they each had a set But one student had really poor of small tubes. I realized they were all circulation and one day it was so cold, leaving lots of white in their paintings as she asked if she could leave early. When they were being very careful about not I polled them about how they felt about using too much paint. They didn’t say working in the rain, they didn’t seem that to me; I could just see it. too excited. So we found some huge leftover I am a little allergic in the fall. Not bottles of paint at the Logan Center. obviously—not like sneezing and That’s where the bright backgrounds coughing allergic. But there was a lot of came from. They no longer had to mold the last week. At the end of three conserve paint. hours of being outside, the rest of the day was gone for me. What was the mood of the class like? But you would teach it again? I think there was a sort of mellow sadness. But they were all very present Oh yeah. In non-COVID times, it would and involved and worked hard. be really great to teach it again, and be able to move in and out of the Logan During the final critique, which was Center easily—use the classroom and remote, you mentioned how different be outside. The students could store

art looks on-screen. You can’t see the things and work there after class. ❁ All artwork courtesy the artists

Winter 2021 / 17

COM_21_FY21_CORE_February_2021_Long_v9.indd 17 1/20/21 2:48 PM “I realized masks can be the new thing.” Fatou Ndoye, Class of 2023, is an economics major from Dakar, Senegal.

ast year, I was a photographer for MODA, the fashion RSO [recognized L student organization]. When we first started having to wear masks, I was like, oh no. I can’t match my outfits with this. But later on I realized masks can be the new thing. There are so many styles. When your face is covered, you can find another way to express yourself—with your mask. And I love that my face stays warm. Autumn Quarter has been better than I expected. All my classes were THROUGH online, and personally, I enjoyed that. Online classes allow me to stay focused and organized, and going back to the recordings of the lectures was great. STUDENT When COVID hit in the spring, I had to move out of the dorm into an apartment by myself. That was really hard. Now I EYES have two roommates who have been my source of support. They’re my best friends, Two photographers show and we have a great relationship. us what Autumn Quarter I have not been home to see my was like. family in Dakar for over a year. They’re trying to put up a good front, but I know they want me home. I was going to go home for Christmas, but the number of As told to Carrie Golus, AB’91, AM’93 cases in Senegal started rising a little bit. The rate in Senegal is very low, a lot his quarter the Core had two less than the United States. But the main Micro-Metcalf interns, Fatou thing is the fear of not being able to Ndoye and Vera Soloview, both come back, even if I have a visa, because Class of 2023. Together they the borders can be clos