Shake Your Chains

Otis Fine Arts 2012 BFA Exhibition

Shake Your Chains2012 Otis Fine Arts BFA Degree ExhibitionMay 6-13, 2012

CATALOGUE STAFFEditor: Holly Tempo

Print Committee:

Joan Slottow, ChairAlexis Anne AfaghiEugenia BarbucNatalie JonesJustine LimVivien Ma

Design: Rachel FishmanTypefaces: Century Gothic (Monotype), Century 725 (Heinrich Hoffmeister, Bitsream.)

AUDIO TOURScript: Joan Slottow

Narrator: Beverly Walker-Bostick

Special thanks to Robert Walters and Matthew Ballard of Otis Information Systems, and Mark Farina and Robyn Dunbar (RAD) of the Video Lab for helping to make the audio tour possible.

SENIOR STUDIOSenior Exhibition Coordinators: Alex Slade, Holly Tempo

Exhibition Design Committee Coordinator: Alex Slade

Senior Studio Mentors:Carole Caroompas (Fall 2011)Dana Berman DuffScott GriegerSoo KimJohn Sonsini (Spring 2012)

Senior Studio Visiting Mentors:Steven BankheadSarah Lehrer-GraiwerStanya KahnAram MoshayediKori Newkirk

FINE ARTS DEPARTMENT:Chair: Meg CranstonAssistant Chair: Alex SladeDepartment Coordinator: Kate HardingOffice Manager: Michelle Chong

OTIS COLLEGE OF ART AND DESIGN, 2012Paper Stock: 95# Topkote gloss cover, 100# Topkote dull textPrinter: iGEN3 digital press by Xerox

Printed in the United States by BurdgeCooper New World Printing

CONTENTSDana Duff Mentor Group

Alexis Anne AfaghiJuan DezHanna KovenockJ. LeeGabi. Vru.Meghan WeinsteinTaylor ZepedaContact Page

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Scott GriegerMentor Group

Diana BonillaMichael ChoCollectiveCollective (Svetlana Romanova and Mark DeSiderio)Marcela GottardoTaryn Mller NicollJoan SlottowRebecca Marie YeretzianContact Page

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343638

4042444648

Soo KimMentor Group

Walker BaronNatalie JonesVivien MaManda OlsonPhilippe Anthony QuinalSean Patrick WatkinsWonJessica YorkContact Page John Sonsini

Mentor Group

Hasmik Aga-SarkisianEugenia BarbucJeannie Lou F. EstonactocSvetlana KuzminykhRebecca KwonJustine LimSang ParkAndrs StickarContact Page

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Rise like Lions after slumberIn unvanquishable number.

Shake your chains to earth like dewWhich in sleep had fallen on you-

Ye are many they are few. Percy Bysshe Shelley

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Dana Duff Mentor GroupAlexis Anne AfaghiJuan DezHanna KovenockJ. LeeGabi. Vru.Meghan WeinsteinTaylor Zepeda

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Dana Duff would love to send this group of Otis Fine Arts seniors off into the world with the now immortal words of Louise Bourgeois from 1988, when she was 77-years old.

Art comes from life. Art comes from the problem you have in seducing birds, men, snakes anything you want. It is like a Corneille tragedy, where everybody is pursuing somebody else. You like A, A likes D, and D likes.... Being a daughter of Voltaire and having an education in the eighteenth-century rationalists, I believe that if you work enough, the world is going to get better. If I work like a dog on all these... contraptions [her artworks], I am going to get the bird I want....

Donald Kuspit asked Bourgeois, You were not really interested in success?

Bourgeois answered, No, I was not. Thats why I have lasted so long. I have ridden out my success because it was not really the purpose of my work to be successful. My work will outlive its success, be more enduring and stronger than success. I was never disappointed when I never had success, which is why I never destroyed any of my work. Many artists destroy their work not because it is bad, but because it is not successfulbecause other people arent interested in it, because other people dont attend to it. When the dealers finally began to look me up, finally came to me, all my work was there.

Dana Duff

Alexis Anne Afaghi

In my practice, I am drawn towards excess, consumption, obsession, and the regurgitation of all that consumes one living in the modern world. My body serves as both a tool and a vessel of material by which I engage throughpleasure, pain and compulsion. I use my body as part of a performative gesture that mines the notions of worship, display, organization and compartmentalization. In the film Maneia, the repetitive nature of an excessively intense interest or desire translates into a sequence of movements that are reminiscent of a fluid choreography as opposed to an involuntary frenzy of ailment and distress.

Alexis Anne AfaghiManeia2011Stills from video projection120 min.14

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Juan Dez

My work explores the differences between nature and the industrial world we live in: the surreal, artifi-cial, spiritual and unexplainable instances of reality. My exploration is never intended as a critique of so-ciety, but rather a celebration of my time in a culture.

Juan DezPieceofart2012Mixed media installation (detail)Variable dimensions

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Hanna Kovenock

Characterized by whimsy, my work delves into the mysteries of human nature and the self-reflexive cycles of life and death. My delicate yet scientifically derived work proves that more than form and process consti-tute art. There is a touch of darkness in each piece that hints at a catharsis of humanitys understanding of its unique condition. I am interested in how a work of art transforms during the process; for example, whether it be random scraps of recycled materials organized into a perfect rainbow of handmade paper, a wild community garden sited at an institution, or a bumpy blurry video with a heartfelt narrative and not so soothing compila-tions of sound. Of the utmost importance to me is that a project be either extremely easy, or nearly impossible, to physically, emotionally, and spiritually carry.

Hanna KovenockSpectrum: (Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue) (Detail)2011Handmade recycled paper12 X 17

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J. Lee

I make my work to feel productive and happy. I enjoy working with a variety of materials. I aim to explore my thoughts and express them through both representation and abstraction. In my painting practice, I often use text in many of my paintings because of its playfulness and directness in terms of providing the viewer withaccess to my work. When painting, I try to embrace all of my ideas and impulse to create by working quickly; a practice that results in pictures that are much more intuitive than my sculptures. I believe that all of the ideas for my works are valuable regardless of being good or bad. I have learned over the years that I must believe in what I am making and keep on doing what I do best.

J. LeeUntitled (Cat Tower)2011Sculptural InstallationVariable dimensions

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Gabi. Vru.

I was born in Lithuania just after the Chernobyl nucle-ar disaster in 1986. During the existence of the former Soviet Union, my grandparents were well-known the-ater actors. As a child, I would spend my time exploring the theaters dressing rooms. While the Soviet Union slowly fell apart, I was growing up and playing with my friends in the remains of a post-war landscape. Years later after emigrating to America, I began to search for the time lost using my memories as inspira-tion. Through imagery, I build distorted cross-cultural environments with their own characters. For example, in the video Dean and Chlorine, the title characters battle to be the dominant identity in a representation of my psyche. In this struggle, there are no winners and the conflict continues without resolution.

Gabi. Vru.Dean & Chlorine2012Still from video 15 min.

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Meghan Weinstein

KISSHello, KittiesRemix GenerationOur cuteness is our greatest weapon.Reckless DrivingDead FriendRise, from the depths of the internet.Everything is RelevantEat Meat HappyMTV ObscurityLiquid TelevisionThe Infinite SwimZeinanismPure Path, Pure FutureHomie HoppersVideodromeThere is no God.Black HoleDont Do Drugs, Drink Four LokoKeep It On The HushTeens Scream For Canadian TweenIf youve got the pink, theyve got the green.J.B.s A HE RT THR B

Sweet SixteenShow a little skin.Girls Just Wanna Have FunThank You For Being My FriendAll My Facebook Friends Hate MeBe BoldDo It YourselfBricoleurLive a life of luxuryPreciousWhats Mine is Mine101010Wish You Were Here, The View Is GreatCall Me, MaybeXOXOGossipwww.meghanweinstein.comEvery day can be this beautiful.

Meghan Weinsteinwww.meghanweinstein.com2012Still from video installationVariable dimensions

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Taylor Zepeda

Taylor ZepedaPoseidon OGilroy (Detail)2012Glue and Garlic over cardboard on steel stand66 X 16 X 16

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Contact

Alexis Anne [email protected]

Juan [email protected]/JDEZILLUSIONS

Hanna [email protected]

Taylor [email protected]

J. [email protected]

Gabi. [email protected]

Meghan Weinstein415-710-9196rhythmnationmw@yahoo.comwww.meghanweinstein.com

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Scott Grieger Mentor GroupDiana BonillaMichael ChoCollectiveCollective (Svetlana Romanova and Mark DeSiderio)Marcela GottardoTaryn Mller NicollJoan SlottowRebecca Marie Yeretzian

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Scotts Favorite Advice - Top Ten List

1. Dont worry, be happy.2. No one is promised tomorrow.3. Accept the things you cannot change.4. Dont be afraid of being a holy fool.5. Dont take your heart to the marketplace.6. Speak low, speak slow and dont say much.7. Everything you do comes back on you.8. Leave the sinking ship behind.9. If it looks good small, it will look even better big.10. If its messy, eat it over the sink.

We have heard you are enlightened, is that true? asked the students. It is true. the master Kyogen answered. Tell us, how do you feel? the students asked. As miserable as ever. replied the enlightened Kyogen.

Scott Grieger

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Diana Bonilla

For the past year my photographic work has been focused on documenting my walks through different parts of Los Angeles. I focus on the different dynamics that exist in Downtown LA, from the busy and ener-getic Santee Alley to the dark and desolate back alleys of Maple Street. My interest lies in documenting the cultural and social interactions that occur in this area, and exploring how they reflect larger social issues that we face in the city. My photos try to document invis-ible cultural boundaries that exist, but hardly anyone speaks about. I investigate the difference between people who are on the inside and those on the outskirts of the mainstream. Who is in power and who is not? These are issues that as a first generation Latino-American concern me. I record the daily struggle and creative methods that the Latino immigrant community finds to survive in this fast-paced demanding city.

Diana BonillaDaily Walks, March 3-10, 2012Ink Jet print17.5 X 23

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Michael Cho

The Immortal Circus

Is that it?Two knocks upon deaths dock;the ship shall leave of late.This course henceforthshall win the discourseyet kill your rosy cheek.He doesnt get it!In a cage, the little monkey playswith truth and delusion.How pathetic!Did you forget?Aha! You rememberthe burden fate put upon you....An interesting switch.It has become kitschto scratch that great itchyou cannot scratch.Pondering timewhile sitting on the horizon line,your two eyes containthe sunrise.

This is the price you pay.Even your love we will touch.Is this me?Is this you?What is the difference?In the end, you shoot a naughty arrow.So dig! Dig! Dig!But please, hide the evidence.What we cannot stand is your art.Is this you?Is this me?Very nice!very nice!A saw, you see?Shall cut your head off-- look! It tumbles quite happily!

Michael ChoDynamo2011Acrylic on cardboard construction72 X 72

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CollectiveCollective (Svetlana Romanova and Mark DeSiderio)

I. State of Emergence: emergence as practice, time, speed and motion as medium, landscape as assistant, body as site.

To emerge is to become, come to be, and metamorphose. The act of emergence is an act of changing, the process of abruption from one to indefinite. In relation to the col-lective, emergence as a form of act produces nothing other than itself. Emergence as a process becomes the reason of existence. The collective produces nothing more than a collective, and seeks for no other purposes rather than the experiences of members as collective. With no distinct progress or regress, our emerging-collective is a multiplying activity that does not imitate or represent anything but its own processes. Our art practice is emergence.

Works created through processes of emergence are op-posing static. Even static objects as sculptural elements are thought of as passive processes that sublimate particular paths or locations. Sublimation of objects and images are ritualistically functioning visual structures that are referring to the origins of art. The dormant and passive presence of an object is a process of ritual as a timeless existence.

CollectiveCollecive(Svetlana Romanova and Mark DeSiderio)Rat2011Stills from video performanceDimensions variable

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CollectiveCollective (Svetlana Romanova and Mark DeSiderio)

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Marcela Gottardo

I am searching for a thread that connects us all through visual experience, an unspoken language. Can I as an artist investigate, with a variety of ma-terials and means, what happens when we peel back layers of language, politics, art commerce, cultural habits and find, through some root visual experience, a common humanity? I am more interested in the question than in proposing answers. My work in-volves perceptual sensory experience, and exploring the formal and symbolic communication that can be generated by different materials and the interactions between them. I have explored these ideas through a methodical investigation of form, simple gestures, deliberate process, materiality, and systemic order juxtaposed with uncontrolled actions, signs, and the open field produced by artworks that evolve in real space as viewers interact with them. I am interested in internal and external spatial relationships, and in the experience of time. I undertake this because, for me, art explores the possibility of transformation.

Marcela GottardoUntitled # 1 (Support, Space, and Materials Series)2012Plaster and cement pigment16 X 16

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Taryn Mller Nicoll

My work is created in awareness of its potential to suture this fractured postmodern world with a new, inspired approach to reveal the good and the beau-tiful. As a figurative artist, I see the body as the ultimate symbol for regeneration, healing and positive progression. My works feature lyrical syntheses of figurative references that function as a visual allegory for a personally manifested reconstruction of life as we know it. Gestural figure drawings and strokes of color reside on the same plane as, and sometimes overlap with, carefully rendered anatomical diagrams in an effort to study the finite ways in which we at-tempt to know our bodies. Within my depictions of abstracted physiological references, I balance the un-controllable, unfamiliar qualities of our human bodies with the beauty of luscious rendering and harmonious reconfiguration. In this way, I have acknowledged fear and answered it with visual metaphors for active regeneration and transformation.

Taryn Mller NicollKnockout Genes2012Watercolor and ink on paper16 x 22 framed

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Joan Slottow

In Concerning the Spiritual in Art, Wassily Kandinsky wrote that it is the spiritual role of the artist to bring light into the world and expel some of the darkness that exists here. Like Kandinsky, I am interested in making work that communicates joy. By bringing more joy into the world, I am increasing its stock of goodness as joy and laughter serve as vehicles of healing. Like the Expressionist painters, I process experience through imagination and reveal my inner nature in my work. I use animal imagery and curvy lines to emphasize whimsy, playfulness and a sense of innocence. Our instinctive positive response to curviness, especially upward-directed curves, is innately tied up with our reaction to the smile. When my work makes me laugh it bringme happiness, and I hope that others will also take de-light in it and have their spirits uplifted.

Joan SlottowDachshund CourtierOctober 2011Paper mach and acrylic over wire armature27 X 7 X 22

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Rebecca Marie Yeretzian

Rebecca Marie Yeretzian[Embrace the grit of the terrestrial, Enable your fatal flaw] rooster, 2012Digital study7 X 7

There are no words, There are words, yes.

I have been misplaced amid a facet of truth and being. Omitted from the routine of drones servicing a queen.

My fervor has become liminal, yes. My apathy has become righteous. //

However.

Ritualizing the nothingness. Anticipating the unknown. Craving the constant.

Did it make you ache so leaving me? Or were you never mine?

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Contact

Diana [email protected]@hotmail.com

Michael [email protected]

CollectiveCollective(Svetlana Romanova and Mark DeSiderio)917-292-9389818-632-0646intentionalspontaneity@gmail.commadesign623@gmail.comwww.theyeartheyuccabloomed.tumblr.com

Marcela [email protected]

Taryn Mller [email protected]

Joan Slottow310-556-3372joan_slottow_art@att.netwww.joanslottowart.com

Rebecca Marie [email protected]

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Soo Kim Mentor GroupWalker BaronNatalie JonesVivien MaManda OlsonPhilippe Anthony QuinalSean Patrick WatkinsWonJessica York

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The Map of Uncharted Territory

Sei Shonagon, a lady in waiting to Princess Sadako at the beginning of 11th century Japan had a passion for lists: the list of elegant things, things that have lost their power, things that give a hot feeling, even of things not worth doing. One day she drew up a list of things that make the heart beat faster. This small group of ladies-in-waiting in the Empress Court contemplated the tiniest details in their world, but recorded and marked the culture in deeper ways than the thundering of the politicians of the Court.

We live in a time of flux: ideologies are collapsing; technology is developing exponentially; the very notion of what it means to be human today is undefined; the tension between the public and private self has become acute. The artists in this exhibition share a healthy distrust of both the purely personal and the securely social.

Their works ask the audience to share their selections from the infinite raw material existing in the world, with the artist acting as both filter and selector, bringing the inert to the attentions of the audience. Recognition and reinvestment of significance is exposed in areas where it might otherwise be overlooked or taken for granted.

Many of the works in Shake Your Chains rely on strategies that could be described as startling, bewildering, disturbing, and spellbinding. The work of my menteesWalker Baron, Natalie Jones, Vivien Ma, Philippe Anthony Quinal, Manda Olson, Sean Patrick Watkins, Jihyun Won, and Jessica Yorksimultaneously challenge notions of transcendence and practicality. These works define the future while constructing their past, consider ideas of both preservation and annihilation, and exploit entropy and order, ultimately they change the way we look at and

understand the world around us. This is artwork charged with the paradox of discovering territory that is familiar yet uncharted.

Ive asked these artists to make a list of some of their favorite things, to try to anticipate future categories, themes and motifs with which they will contemplate their world.

When my dog Chico plays with other dogs at the dog park, crooked grinds, cardboard, Toddy Gs pizza, freedom, lukewarm coffee, Dancehall riddims, seeing dolphins while Im surfing, deep space, outdoors adventures. Ice water, coffee and cigarettes, apricot, books, number 5, giraffe, nittaku yellow ping pong balls, eating, making art. Reading, coffee, mountains, driving, electric blankets, cloudy days, Kaleidescope, socks, donuts, Gold Room. Cream puffs, the velvet of a horses nose, tabby cats, Saint

Bernards, raspberries, fresh Canadian air, hot tubs, Maldive islands, cheesecake, summer days by the lake. Sugar, cats, jam, pie, sunshine, coffee, order, squirrels, flowers, paper. Family , friends , traveling , Hawaii , good food , good music , good sex , peace of mind , free things , accomplishment . Juxtaposed nature of film sets, archives of photographs, cinema, semiotics, T-Max 100 (120mm), Classic film set stills, self-distortion of personal memories ( lies becoming believed as memory by the person), trying to figure out family past from family archives of photos, Film Production design, physical evolution of a landscape.And on my list at the moment: Jessica, Won, Sean, Manda, Phil, Vivien, Natalie, Walker, you and me.

April 2012

Soo Kim

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Walker Baron

My creative practice is driven by a deep faith in art as a way of experiencing and bringing new meaning to everyday life. While my art utilizes a wide variety of methods, mediums, and materials, it is united by an essential energy of investigation and resistance. Each project may begin with a simple observation or idea, but inevitably confronts questions about the struc-tures and ideologies behind aspects of culture, society and, of course, art. I am simultaneously invested in formal concerns in the mediums I work with, as well as theoretical questions about their function.

My artistic process often relies on the principles of collage. Whether I am combining physically disparate materials, reversing the values we normally placeon objects, or tangling mediums and art historical ideas, I am always interested when conflicting ideas are forced into engagement and arrive at a place where paradoxes and loopholes abound.

Walker BaronPyramid Purse2012 Tiles, caulk, concrete, shelf bracket, wire, found purse, wig, and photograph38 X 12 X 6

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Natalie Jones

The performative aspect of my work is defined by travel. It is used to investigate the correlation between the experiential and self-purpose. Texts and objects emerge like relics of these acts. They exist to facilitate actual conversations between the viewer and myself.

Natalie JonesMirage Montage (Poster)2012Inkjet print11 X 17

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Vivien Ma

I am interested in an additive process that furthers me as a person, particularly in how we perceive reality on an everyday basis. The disconnection to our origins in our current state, from our relation-ship to the past, and our perception of that history are a large part of my practice. Our cultural, social and biological states structure what we see. Stored away in our minds are our memories. The way that memories function is mimicked by photography, allowing us to ex-perience photography to a fuller extent. Memories and photographs are both fragments of a larger whole: potent visual markers of experience. Any photo is questionable in regards to truthfulness; the memory too is not what it seems. We think that memories represent the absolute truth, but our minds unconsciously create information to fill in the blanks. Using food as a bridge of commonality, I attempt to create connections between time and space to create a bubble of alternative reality.

Vivien MaThree Generations #3Spring 2011Inkjet print, edition of 34 X 6

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Manda Olson

Id like to present the outcome of: Puncture Thread Pull Repeat

Manda OlsonFauxGeometric 102012Ink and nylon thread on paper7 X 7

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Philippe Anthony Quinal

My current work investigates personal identity and the relationship I have with art through the act of mark mak-ing. When painting, I engage in a dialog with the piece that manifests as reaction-based decision making. Each mark is made because the one next to it exists. As the vocabulary of marks appears, a sense of rhythm, spiri-tuality, and culture are conveyed. These characteristics are important because they give me reason to have hope for the future. As a result of my process, there is also a certain amount of physicality and performance in these works. As this personal visual language and process continues to expand and evolve, my hope is to explore the self in relationship to art and the world that we live in. As I continue to experience and discover new ideas and tech-niques in my practice, it motivates me to go on further to find out more.

Philippe Anthony Quinal Untitled (black too)2011Acrylic, gesso and ink on canvas78 X 78 X 1.5

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Sean Patrick Watkins

My work is rooted in the language of photography and cinema. I am driven by peoples attempts to grasp at and preserve memory or trace. This act of preservation taints and distorts the information we retain for future reflection of the true experience. Memory is continually recording events, only to have them torn apart by time and disease. They recede into faintly pulsing glimpses of the clear image we once held, which soon will fade away. These traces offer fleeting evidence of the inevitable decay of the human mind. The human mind is anamazing thing. Like a biological film negative, it holds the essential information that forms us as individuals. Simple electrical pulses pass between two points ofthe mind, providing the data necessary for the human imagination to form an internal, cinematic, trace experi-ence. My work carries semiotic traces of my past;each piece acting as a pragmatic pictorial sign to myself.

Sean Patrick WatkinsPreservation of ChaptersDigital concept model

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Won

My art represents a desire to reconnect with past expe-rience through the senses. I cannot regain or recreate the sight, smell or touch of what existed in the past. However as an artist, I can reconstruct a linear narra-tive of my life by capturing non-linear traces of what remains as memory. My goal is to share my memory with the viewer. I refer to memory as trace because it is not the event itself. The work functions as a trace of a trace, in the sense that it is a record of memory. I attempt to connect the viewer with the emotional reality of my history.

WonBlack Goats2011Inkjet print, edition of 542 X 51

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Jessica York

A significant aspect of my life has been my relationship with horses and the subculture of Dressage. I have ex-plored this relationship in a series of black and white and color photographs that evoke the communion between horse and rider and the concentration and commitment that the rider must experience to succeed in this complex and demanding sport. Dressage high-lights aspects of the power and grandeur of the horse, and elicits themes of precision and control over the animal and surrounding environments. The display of dressage is a remnant of my personal history; and the notions of power, control, and tradition within it are what is compelling in the viewing of images that reflect this culture.

Jessica Yorkand now, with footing slow, let them retrace their course back to the temples2012Inkjet print, edition of 335 X 35

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Contact

Walker [email protected]

Natalie [email protected]

Vivien [email protected]

Manda [email protected]

Philippe Anthony [email protected]

Sean Patrick [email protected]

[email protected]

Jessica York310-713-4551jessicayorkphotography@gmail.comwww.jessicayorkphotography.com

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Hasmik Aga-SarkisianEugenia BarbucJeannie Lou F. EstonactocSvetlana KuzminykhRebecca KwonJustine LimSang ParkAndrs Stickar

John Sonsini Mentor Group

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You came to art long before you came to college. And, in the words of my dear friend Alice: This is not the last stop. Congratulations!!

John Sonsini

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Hasmik Aga-Sarkisian

In my work, I struggle with complex matters dealing with my identity as an Armenian and as an American. In the cultural space I inhabit, values constantlycollide with one another and create conflicts that I explore in my art. I use unorthodox materials with an emphasis on process to represent tension in thepaintings. In many of my works, I have used materials such as ash, carpet, cigarette buds, sand, nails, bur-lap, burned wood, dirt, pages from The Bible-- things that reference certain experiences and childhood memories. Additionally, destructive acts like burning, tearing or puncturing the canvas, are a very significant part of my practice. Such acts challenge the tradi-tional structure of a painting as a containing square or rectangle. In my paintings, the chaotic experience is represented by these planned defacements.

Hasmik Aga-SarkisianNamed After Her2011Artists blood on canvas, buried for 23 days60 X 60

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Eugenia Barbuc

As an interdisciplinary artist, I utilize the language of drawing, film, sculpture and painting to explore personal and public narratives. My work delineates postcolonial and feminist thought. My paintings deal with mark making and traces of actions that relate to memory as well as gender. The recent work explores the reality of historical accounts of the personal and the national, blurring the lines between the two. Tibor, a Roma man played by female and male actors, becomes the focal point in this exploration as he navigates through a transient existence both on and off our planetary plane. He is an imaginary character in dialogue with the lore of the astronaut, as well as the mythic qualities of the territorially and terrestrially unbound. He explores lunar landscapes and the terrain of iden-tity. My interest in non-linear storytelling creates a constellation of personal, historical and fictional references, creating a space where reality andfiction cannot be distinguished.

Eugenia BarbucAstrolog 12012Video installation(color, sound)7 min loop

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Jeannie Lou F. Estonactoc

In my paintings, I challenge negative societal perceptions of the round, feminine body. I render the figures as monumental curvy forms, using rich colors, layered textures and dense patterns to communicate an image of desire. By shifting the focus onto sensual depictions of the body via the materiality of paint, earthy palette, and exaggerated poses that fill the canvas, I provide the viewer with the freedom to succumb to visual pleasure and, thus, sidestep preconceived notions of the beautiful. This work is inspired by the idea that an indi-vidual, who is subject to social and cultural mores, has a very distinct inclination towards specific body types. However the eyes, as unconditioned independents, are devoid of these inclinations and are instead focused on purely optical aesthet-ics. My paintings propose a redirected standard of physical beauty that brings us closer to the voluptuous.

Jeanie Lou F. EstonactocGive a girl an education and introduce her properly into the world, and ten to one she has the means of settling well, without further expense to anybodyMarch 2012 Oil on canvas 36 X 48

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Svetlana Kuzminykh

Determined to be taken seriously, twenty-somethings have embraced a new trend labeled seapunk. Seapunk, established two weeks ago in New York City, is youths creative response to the culture of today. Featuring fake turquoise-blue hair, multicultural designs on clothing, and a mash-up of many moments in time, seapunk communi-cates a subculture that is influenced by everything. The visual style of seapunk combines artificial, ready-made and DIY qualities. This is what my work and seapunk now share. Loosely defined, it forms potential to create new meanings and a new aesthetic, provoking the view-ers imagination and encouraging them to discover new meanings. Its our moment.

Svetlana KuzminykhArtificial Homestyle2012Inkjet print22 X 24

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Rebecca Kwon

My current work manifests as a complex grid system composed of photographic test prints and contact sheets from 35 mm film negatives. The photographic contents of the film revolve around linear perspective, patterns, and repetition; for example, one image consists of a grocery store aisle with the stacked products on display. Within the grid, a sense of tension and vibrancy is created by the strips of film, which are densely layered. In previous works, I have utilized a similar systematic process of laying down pigment on canvas to convey a poetic sensibility and formalism via the language of painting. Even though these works are made without paint, I continue to read them as paintings due to the process. Each bit of film functions as material rather than art object; and is pieced together to create a visual language that refers to the gesture and movement of abstract painting.

Rebecca KwonUntitled Painting III2012Collage with 35mm color contact prints on panel84 X 72

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Justine Lim

My work is an exploration of the things that have been for-gotten by my generation in favor of a monoculture defined by the new and the trendy. Hipsterdom is the aspiration of many middle and upper class youth now. That which is perceived as cool has become the embodiment of the high-est good to many of my peers. I make objects in protest of these ideals. I create fantastic representations of the ideal-ized recollections of my childhood, as well as of the youth culture of previous generations of Americans. Within this examination of my memory, I also am forced to pull from my cultural heritage coming from Korea, but in accordance with my national identity as an American. Through thisamalgamation of memory and whimsy, I create objects that simultaneously promote nostalgic reflections of the past and blinding flashes of a bleak and cool future.

Justine LimIn the Gutters of Gastronomical Delights2012Mixed media installationVariable dimensions

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Sang Park

We call something absurd when it is inconsistent with what common sense or experience tells us. My obsession with the visual and conceptual relationship between abstracted imagery of toilet seats and the human body may appearto be unreasonably logical. I am fascinated by the sensory bond implied by the design of the seat and its use. In order to explore this whimsical connection in my paintings, with-out experiencing any of the grosser associations, I create a system of shapes that represent the primary object. Ireduce the seat and the negative spaces around it to its fun-damental forms: ovals and curvilinear lines. These elegant visual references allow us to keep at bay reminders of bodily functions and other taboo subjects. This symbology, appearing within the context of abstract painting, encap-sulates my conception of an existence where we battle against being conscious of the banal by reaching towards the sublime.

Sang ParkBeyond Wildest Dreams2012Oil on canvas44 X 32

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What is creation? How is it different when considered in terms of mythology, history and religion? In between faith and fantasy is where I can find my answers. My artwork manifests from this liminal space. Ever-expanding and endlessly perishing, the world spills forth from me and onto my paintings. Populated with men born of my doubts and beliefs, my subconscious landscapes are subject to the in-fluence of my conscious mind. Ordering existence through their actions, these men make sense of the untamed world. Within this world, I can translate and connect the disparate parts of my mind. Every interaction is important, each thing in this world being essential to the whole and provid-ing for my own journey. Roaming this expanse, I navigate and map the mythologies of my beliefs and the landscape of my existence.

Andrs Stickar

Andrs StickarNorth Hill (Detail)2012Acrylic, ink and pencil on paper4 X 16

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Contact

Hasmik [email protected]

Eugenia Barbuc909-251-5237ebarbuc@student.otis.eduwww.eugeniabarbuc.blogspot.com

Jeannie Lou F. Estonactoc714-209-5797genielou@gmail.comwww.jeannielou.blogspot.com

Sang [email protected]

Andrs [email protected]

Svetlana [email protected]

Rebecca [email protected]

Justine [email protected]

Shake Your Chains

Documents

Transcript of Shake Your Chains