SPRING THESIS EXHIBITIONS WILL BE FEATURED AT THE CENTER FOR CURATORIAL STUDIES, BARD COLLEGE, SUNDAY, MARCH 19, TO SUNDAY, APRIL 16 Graduate students Lisa Hatchadoorian, Gregory
ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y.—The first series of spring thesis exhibitions will be on view from Sunday, March 19, through Sunday, April 16, at the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College. The exhibitions are curated by Lisa Hatchadoorian, Gregory Sandoval, Jeffrey Walkowiak, and Teresa Williams, second-year students in the Center's graduate program in curatorial studies and contemporary art. They have organized these exhibitions as part of their final master's degree projects. In addition to the thesis exhibitions, a gift of eighteen contemporary photographic works given to the Center by Peter and Eileen Norton, a video installation recently acquired for the Marieluise Hessel Collection, and a film installation given to the Center by Carlos and Rosa de la Cruz will be on view. The exhibition opens Sunday, March 19, with an opening reception from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. The exhibition and the reception are free and open to the public.
Looking Back, curated by Lisa Hatchadoorian, presents four contemporary artists—Jeannette Christensen, Julie Heffernan, Matts Leiderstam, and Cindy Sherman—who are inspired by a visual history of art. Quoting, appropriating, and copying motifs and styles from older paintings, these four artists create portraits and self-portraits that combine art history with contemporary sources of meaning. Their artworks set up a dialogue between the past and present and among the artist, subject, and viewer.
Unraveling Desire, curated by Gregory Sandoval, explores the interests that artists Richard Hawkins and Karen Kilimnik have in popular icons. Producing seemingly personal "takes" on the famous and beautiful, the artists suggest that their individual fascination is not unlike the public's collective understanding of media subjects. The artists' use of imagery is borrowed from or inspired by glamour magazines and advertisements and relies upon the public's ability to "read" this source material, according to Sandoval. Moreover, the loosely executed work of Hawkins and Kilimnik evokes an obsessive, fan-like quality that ambiguously plays within the realm of personal fantasy and desire.
Sightings, curated by Jeffrey Walkowiak, is an exhibition of works by Tom Burr, D-L Alvarez, Dean Sameshima, and Michael Elmgreen and Ingar Dragset that reveals the specialized languages of the different locations where anonymous sex occurs and contemporary art is exhibited. "In both cases, these languages are not readily available to everyone," says Walkowiak, "but only to those who are versed in them." The exhibition brings forth issues about the forms of communication and other concerns related to these sites.
Superflex in company—economic potentials, curated by Teresa Williams, presents and continues a collaboration between Superflex and Bard College students. Superflex, an artistic collective working in Copenhagen, consists of three artists: Bjørnstjerne Christiansen, Jakob Fenger and Rasmus Nielsen. Together with Danish and African engineers and the nongovernmental organization SURUDE (Sustainable Rural Development) in Tanzania, the artists have created an innovative biogas system for individual ownership. Biogas is a technology used worldwide to generate alternative energy through the transformation of animal dung into methane gas. The exhibition features a visual presentation and a public discussion that focuses on the issues and potentials surrounding the project. It emphasizes not only the propositions put forth through the collaboration but also the spirit inherent in Superflex’s actions as they relate to and redefine ideas of what art can be.
The Center will also present the film installation Jodie, 1998, by Dara Friedman, given to the Center by Carlos and Rosa de la Cruz, in the prints and drawings Gallery. In the video gallery, Pipilotti Rist's Blauer Leibesbrief (Blue Bodily Letter), 1992/98, is screened. It was recently acquired for the Marieluise Hessel Collection, on permanent loan to the Center for Curatorial Studies. An exhibition, The Body in Photographs: A Recent Gift from Eileen and Peter Norton, will be on view through May 28.
Free bus transportation on March 19 is available from New York City to the Center for Curatorial Studies.
A Premier Coach bus will leave from the corner of Wooster and Grand Streets in SoHo at 11:00 a.m. and depart from the Center at 4:00 p.m. Reservations are required and can be made by calling the Center at 914-758-7598 no later than Friday, March 17. Transportation is provided through the generosity of Howard and Donna Stone.For further information about the exhibitions, call the Center at 914-758-7598 or e-mail [email protected].
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