Welcome back artsy readers!\u00c2\u00a0 In today\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s news I would like to discuss the current exhibition happening on North Campus in the Slusser Gallery in the School of Art and Design.\u00c2\u00a0 I know many of you students out there have probably never ventured to North Campus, but you should, for there is a world to discover.<\/p>\n
The exhibition is titled Creators Collect and it represents the collections of the School of A&D\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s staff, from bones to comics to African American Church fans.\u00c2\u00a0 The special note about this exhibition is a glimpse into perceptions about value.\u00c2\u00a0 What is valued in our society?\u00c2\u00a0 Do these works of art tell a new or different story that alters the perceptions of those societal values?\u00c2\u00a0 The display of what may seem like random items all tell the individual story of histories and hobbies.\u00c2\u00a0 While these are individual collections, the exhibit is so profound because it places the viewer in different contexts with these material objects.\u00c2\u00a0 Removing yourself from material culture, as this exhibition does, and placing you before a recognizable object but blurring the normative function and role that that object has played in your existence is a unique experience in itself.<\/p>\n
An example of this powerful reversal is seen in Marianetta Porter\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s display of African American Church fans.\u00c2\u00a0 Here Marianetta has removed an everyday object, the fan, from its intended purposes and connotations to tell a history of African American culture in the United States.\u00c2\u00a0 When her interest was sparked in African American fans the results she came across while researching these material objects were limited and few.\u00c2\u00a0 This in itself surprised her and pushed her to uncover the truth behind these objects and their whereabouts.\u00c2\u00a0 On display are about 15 fans she has collected.\u00c2\u00a0 People who had their own collections sent some to her, once they heard about her interest, while others she accumulated along the way.<\/p>\n
The fans are made out of a sturdy cardboard like substance attached to what looks like a Popsicle stick.\u00c2\u00a0 The fans\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 function was to keep people cool during church.\u00c2\u00a0 Many people had their own personal fans they would bring with them every Sunday, but fans were also distributed before the service started.\u00c2\u00a0 These fans not only carried a functional role, but also displayed advertisements, were used as a surface for taking notes while in church, as well as a place to depict images of African American culture.\u00c2\u00a0 The fans on display range from the 1950\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s to present day.\u00c2\u00a0 Like many objects that stand the test of time, parts of them transform while keeping the whole intact.\u00c2\u00a0 The changes seen in these church fans are in the images that take up one side of the fan.\u00c2\u00a0 The fans produced during the 1950\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s are images of an African American family with a Mom, Dad and two children.\u00c2\u00a0 There are also pictures of an African American child next to a dog and an image of an African American Jesus.\u00c2\u00a0 These images mirror white portrayals during the time, and point to the fact that the people who were making these fans for African American churches were also disseminating them to white churches. \u00c2\u00a0A more contemporary image shows President Obama.<\/p>\n
Porter has taken an everyday object and displayed it to present viewers with a new way of thinking.\u00c2\u00a0 She is also telling a history that she values as an African American and wants to share with others.\u00c2\u00a0 Her collection is thought provoking, historical, and yet present all at once.\u00c2\u00a0 A true work of art, no doubt.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Welcome back artsy readers!\u00c2\u00a0 In today\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s news I would like to discuss the current exhibition happening on North Campus in the Slusser Gallery in the School of Art and Design.\u00c2\u00a0 I know many of you students out there have probably never ventured to North Campus, but you should, for there is a world to discover. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/745"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=745"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/745\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":747,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/745\/revisions\/747"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}