 "Photo: Shane Damico")
The Visual Arts Studio houses six visiting artists work for the show "Body Text = Gender." The focus of the exhibit is reflection on cultural attitudes toward the body, gender and sexuality as well as representation of the body. The unique combination of concepts may contribute to the difficulty of understanding how the works relate to the theme. Exploring the artist's intentions helps lead to comprehension of their relation.
"These artists are addressing social issues and exploring them in methods that invite the audience to participate in that discussion," said Marilyn Waligore, Arts & Humanities professor and curator for the exhibit.
Mixed media artist Simeen Ishaque did just that. Ishaque's works, including her "Mansavi in Black" collection, were inspired by Pakistani poet, Faiz Ahmed Faiz, who wrote about freedom of speech and opposition of bloodshed. The Arabic text that forms her speech bubbles contains stanzas of his poetry.
"I want to give people power and make them believe that they can change their destiny," Ishaque said.
Both sets of pieces by Bryan Florentin are about making the viewer perceive something they see as normal, such as a bed, in a different way.
His bed pieces are placed in the gallery alcove, and entice the viewer inside the gallery with a bed frame lying in the center.
Once inside, the viewer can see different interesting pieces, such as a photo of a bed with a y-incision. To the right of that are pieces that represent the bed's memories, which can be viewed as recovered from the y-incision, similar to an autopsy.
"The bed and the body are together, to show the bed could stand in for the body at times," Florentin said. "The bed itself could suggest 'body' by absence."
Florentin also exhibited altered wedding pieces which follow his theme of taking something normal and changing the viewer's perspective. The photos were taken at his parents' wedding and edited by the artist.
In one wedding photo triptych, a woman's hand seems to be inserted into the back of a male who is in the center piece of the triptych, as if the woman is controlling him through ventriloquism.
The other triptych displays the same idea, but the men's and women's roles are reversed. The two pieces suggest that women and men control each other.
"I don't want to explain it too much," Florentin said.
Florentin wants viewers to come to their own conclusions about his works.
Morgan Ford's work seems to show the lengths that females go to in order to achieve beauty, including hair dye, pantyhose and teeth whitening.
Thomas Feulmer said one of the purposes of work is to show the desires and wishes of subcultures that aren't viewed as mainstream, and that his work is about longing and fulfillment that everyone wants to achieve.
One set of Feulmer's pieces are spray painted words from online personal ads from men looking for other men on tracing paper or vellum. The smaller pieces being what men do want and the larger ones are what men don't want.
"There's one that's a little bit trashy, and another that seems like a guy who never really grew up," Feulmer said.
The other set of pieces by Feulmer, entitled "FAGGOTROIDRAGE 1 and 2" are foldouts taken from "Exercise for Men Only magazine" with the words "faggot," "roid" and "rage" spray painted and glittered upon them.
"There are three types of men's workout magazines," Florentin said. "One is a true workout magazine, one is for body builders and one is for straight guys who don't know they're gay yet."
Feulmer noted that the magazine he used is the third kind, because it marks a transition that men are not yet aware is happening.
"Even in groups that are on the outside, there are people within that group that want others to be outsiders within that group," Feulmer said.
"Body Text = Gender" will be on display in the Visual Arts Studio until Nov. 28.
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