Tag: Penny Stamps

PREVIEW: Medium Rare – 2015 IP Exhibition

simoka

http://stamps.umich.edu/images/uploads/exhibitions/specialex/melcho_postcardsmall.jpgWho: 85 Undergraduate seniors in the Stamps BFA program

What: The IP (Integrative Project) Course Exhibition featuring art work in a variety of media made over the course of a year.

When: April 16- May 2, 2014

Where: Three different locations:
Slusser Gallery, Art & Architecture Building, U-M North Campus
Opening Reception: Friday, April 17, 6 – 9 pm
Gallery hours: Monday through Friday 9 am – 5 pm, Saturday 12 – 5 pm

Work Gallery, 306 S. State Street, Ann Arbor
Opening Reception: Friday, April 17, 6 – 9 pm
Gallery hours: Tuesday – Saturday, 12 – 7 pm

Argus II Building, 400 4th Street, Ann Arbor
Opening Reception: Friday, April 17, 7 – 10 pm
Gallery hours: Tuesday – Saturday, 12 – 7 pm

REVIEW: Jose Miguel Sokoloff (Penny Stamps Speaker)

Phillip Wachowiak

Jose Miguel Sokoloff is many things; first and foremost, however, he is an advertiser who loves his home country of Colombia.

For roughly an hour, we experienced a condensed version of Colombia’s history and its war with the guerrilla movement. Beginning with the Cold War, Sokoloff laid the groundwork of the guerrillas’ ideological foundation, followed by a gradual shift to an economical role after the fall of the Soviet Union.

The key to ending Colombia’s war with the guerrillas, he stressed, was realizing that the members were as much victims of the organization as the general populace.

We watched the growth of the advertising campaign against the guerrilla’s–from it’s missteps at the beginning to the enormous successes it has achieved in recent years. Always, the message remained the same: “Demobilization is the way out” / “desmovilización es la salida”

What struck me most was how successful Sokoloff and the nation of Colombia was with its advertising campaign, and its intersection of art and politics. Realizing that genuine testimonies were more important than professional actors, the campaign would always “speak to the human” in an effort to convey the message that the war would eventually end anyway.

The government concentrated on Christmas and family, because that was when the members were most vulnerable. Soldiers decorated trees in the jungle with Christmas lights. Glowing balls with heartfelt messages floated down the waterways that the guerrillas used for travel. The military sent soccer balls all over the country to remind the guerrillas what they were missing.

Most touching of all was a campaign involving mothers, in which they stated “Before being a guerrilla, you are my son” / “Antes de ser guerrillero, eres mi hijo”

Eres mi hijo

Overall I loved this talk. This was explicit proof that we don’t need extensive peace talks or military campaigns to dissolve the potency of a violent movement. Instead, this advertising campaign appealed to the hearts and humanity of the guerrillas in the jungle, and it worked.

PREVIEW: Jose Miguel Sokoloff at the Michigan Theater

Phillip Wachowiak

As part of the Michigan Theater’s Penny Stamps Speaker series, humanitarian and civil rights activist Jose Miguel Sokoloff will be coming to speak.

Where: Michigan Theater

When: Thursday, February 19 @ 5:10 PM

FREE TO THE PUBLIC

As the Michigan Theater states in their description, Sokoloff has led a wide campaign against the FARC guerrillas to demobilize in Colombia and end the war.

Even better, you can view a TED Talk, titled “How Christmas lights helped guerrillas put down their guns” to get a better idea of what you can look forward. In the process of advocating peace, he has won a slurry of awards and never stops working.

Additional Appearance at MOCAD: Friday, February 20th at 7 PM.

 

REVIEW: Mary Sibande

nina.j

Mary Sibande

This semester, a number of venues across the entire campus, from The Slusser Gallery in the A&D Building on North Campus, to the  UMMA Commons, to the Institute for Humanities, to the DAAS Gallery in Angell Hall, to the Penny Stamps lecture series, are featuring the work of Mary Sibande. The South African artist is young, bright, and inventive. For a woman her age, she has already seen enormous success, exhibiting her work in Paris, at The Smithsonian, and more. I know how both young and bold she is because I had the pleasant opportunity of having coffee with her the other week (she is in the middle in the photo above).

The professor to whom I am a research assistant, Frieda Ekotto, is writing an article about Mary Sibande’s work and invited me to join her for the interview. We met at Amer’s on State Street and sat near the window, talking about the processes of the artist’s creations from start to finish. To illustrate some of her main points, Mary popped open her computer and started showing us photos she had snapped in her studio. I felt like I was accessing an inside look at the personal snapshots of Mary Sibande’s work. Her images sell for thousands in museums, yet there they were- simple jpegs on her PC.

We discussed the sculpture work that is currently on exhibit at U of M. Sibande has created an almost infamous character called “Sophie.” This larger-than-life mannequin is made of wax and acrylic. The fluorescent dresses she dons are also creations of Sibande’s. Not only is this artist a sculptor and a photographer, she is also a seamstress, fashion designer, story teller, and painter. When I asked how she identifies as an artist,  she responded that she gives no title to her trade lest she limit her capacities to the practice of one particular medium.

In the photo above, which I took in the gallery on North Campus, “Sophie” is weaving tangled black thread into an image of a woman’s face. Who is this woman, you might ask? It is Madame CJ Walker, the woman behind the invention of hair straightening products used in the 1950’s by many women of African decent. This product revolutionized an American culture and she is both a heralded and controversial figure. The relationship between the figure of the weaver Sophie and that of Madame CJ Walker leads the viewer to ponder implications of race, gender, class, culture, self presentation, and more themes provoked by this piece.

Besides this one, Sibande’s exhibit features another of fascinating pieces. Be sure to take a look at Mary Sibande’s exquisitely original work. Even if you aren’t lucky enough to have coffee with her, you have numerous opportunities to become absorbed in her art this semester on campus. Enjoy!

PREVIEW: Please Don’t Feed The Animals

nina.j

Please Don’t Feed the Animals

This Saturday, April 20th there will be multiple gallery- both openings on campus and off- that exhibit the year long Integrative Projects of the senior students in the Penny Stamps School of Art & Design. This particular show, “Please Don’t Feed the Animals,” features the work of Erica Neumann, Anna Schulte, and Claire Jones. Each artist practices a different medium: typography, photography, and sculpture respectively. Two of these three artists are in my Book Arts class so I have already previewed their work. It is stunning- so professional, clean, intriguing, and unprecedented. Erica Neumann has fashioned animal figures out of various fonts and tells the narrative of evolution, both of typography and animal species. Anna Schulte’s photographs are a meditation of happiness. Claire Jones has created her own version of “taxidermy.”

This creative and labor intensive process will finally be on display at the Ann Arbor Art Center from April 20th to May 4th (117 W. Liberty St). An opening reception to celebrate the artwork will take place beginning at 5 pm on Saturday. Don’t miss the special  opportunity to see the talented designs of these up and coming artists. See you there!

REVIEW: Jamy Ian Swiss – Sleight of Hand: How Bodies Fool Minds

Cynthia

“Magicians are actors pretending to be magicians.” Jamy Swiss wowed the crowd and backed up his statement in a lecture through the Penny Stamps Distinguished Visitor Series. While I knew that the Art and Design students are required to attend these lectures, I didn’t realize that Michigan Theater would be packed. When I walked in, almost all the seats were full and I wished I had arrived earlier so I would be able to sit in the front and get a good view of the cards used in the illusions.

In addition to being good actors, magicians must be good storytellers. The card tricks would have been boring if Jamy Swiss had not told a funny story to go along with it. And oftentimes, the stories were used to guide our thinking—in the wrong direction! When breaking down one of the tricks, Jamy Swiss emphasized that he said, “Queen of clubs” three times to keep us thinking about that particular card. Good storytelling is the one of many methods used to deceive the audience.

Body language also affected perception of the illusion. The best example was the standard “disappearing coin trick,” the one where you think the coin is switched to the left hand, when it really just stayed in the right hand. In order to fool others, magicians (or sometimes grandpas!) use body language to send the message that the coin is in the left hand. By shifting his weight to the left and looking at his left hand, the magician sends an unspoken message to the audience that the coin is in the left hand.

Perhaps the best way for a magician to deceive the audience is…to lie! In one card trick, he pulled out a red 8 and black 6 and asked a volunteer to put them back into the deck. He then proceeded shuffle the deck, pull out a red 8 and black 6, and proclaim, “And here they are!” The catch: he pulled out the other red 8 and black 6. Essentially, he lied to us. With enough confidence, he was able to convince us that he told the truth. There was no “magic” in these tricks. He was just a good liar and a good actor!

I truly enjoyed the lecture; it was entertaining and interesting. Afterwards, I found myself walking back in silence though my friend was right next to me. I was trying to figure out how Jamy Swiss managed to fool us every single time even though he told us all the secrets!