Social Distance: in the time of a world pandemic and social injustice.

A call to SEU alumni artists and designers to share words of encouragement and work that matters.

Hello Fellow Artists/Designers!
         Hang in there! Art is an expression of change -take comfort in it! Use this time to reset yourself -go back to the basics and ask yourself what you want from your art. Experiment! Hang out at your studio (or wherever you make art), even if you don’t get anything done! Remember that crisis leads to new opportunities. Continue to educate yourselves on current events and learn to adapt to Art’s transformations. We got this. Go HILLTOPPERS! 

Love, Sarah Rangel
sarahrangel.com 


Adam George (c’14), Photography and Media Arts

“The artichoke symbolizes lovingly speaking your truth and increasing lightness. During these times of uncertainty and chaos we have found that expressing ourselves in ways that are authentic provide a means to process emotions. This film was birthed from a love of gardening and healing time with nature- it’s an opportunity for the viewer to step into a peaceful place.”
Artists: Adam W. George (SEU Grad) and Katherine Baronet.
Title: Flight of the Artichoke Seed (film still)
Media: digital video (click film still to access video)

Camille Josephine (c’20), Photography and Media Arts

“Though this pandemic has temporarily isolated so many of us, I feel that it has also presented a unique opportunity to be alone with our thoughts. For me, taking time to reflect on the events of this year, as well as the lengthy and distressing history of racial injustice, has educated and empowered me as a person of color, artist, and human being. It’s my responsibility to use my voice and perspective to help mold the new normal so that when the pandemic passes, we find the world better than the way we left it.”

 

SpeakTitle: Speak
Media: India ink pen drawing featuring Van Dyke Brown prints
See You SoonTitle: See You Soon
Media: 35mm film photo

Chloe Curiel (c’19), Art

“Vulnerability and personal narrative are tools that became even more essential in my work, as the relentless struggle for racial and social justice, and the isolation brought on by the pandemic both continue to affect many lives. Being in quarantine and spending so much introspective time alone caused me to access a deeply personal well of memories, traumas, and repressed inner monologues, and I began using my own image and body as a medium in my work. The intimacy I found with myself, and the universal feeling of loneliness during this time, urged me to invite others into empowering conversations centered on being known, accepted, and supported, with our wounds open and our scars showing. Making art is just one of the many methods for tearing down barriers so that more stories can be heard and more needs can be met. We must continue to make and listen.”


Title: Hands to Miss (diptych), 2020
Media: digital projection on fabric and gloves

Title: Helen, 2020
Media: Scanned handkerchiefs, digital photographs

Title: Pieta (film still), 2020 
Media: darkness, light, body, video (click film still to access video)

 


Jenn Hassin (c’12), Art

“This is the work that I have primarily spent time on during quarantine. When getting locked out of my studio at Columbia University, I had to think quick about what to grab. I have been collecting remnants of paper making over the years with the intention of using them someday. Making compositions out of the transformed material seemed to be the answer for me.”
Unnamed
Title: Remnants 3, 2020 
Media: collaged handmade paper remnants and fibers primarily made from clothing with a history that stems anywhere from violence to a celebration of life
12 x 9 inches (30.5 x 22.9 cm)
www.jennhassin.com/

Jordan Alyse Hamilton (c’13), Art

“This year, I have been forced to self-reflect on my upbringing and learn what it actually means to be racist. The truth is difficult to face sometimes and, admittedly, I am not sure how closely I would’ve looked had my life not been put on pause because of the pandemic. On one hand, this painting represents the extreme overwhelm I feel with all that is going on in the world, while on the other hand, it serves to call myself out for my ignorance and avoidance up until this point.” 

White Girl ResistanceTitle: White Girl Resistance.
Media: Acrylic on canvas, (22″x28″)
$415 (+shipping)

Juliana Ramirez (c’16), Photography and Media Arts

“Fled home to work remotely… ended up doing the work. Explaining things like the prison industrial complex to my mother. Walking through Target and further explaining to her that she isn’t a bad person. The hot breath of my words flowing back into my mouth as they rhythmically ricochet against my mask. Conversations are important, stepping outside of yourself is important. Understanding that you, too, are a gentrifier, an unaware subject, a player in the “man’s” game. Like an image out of focus you can only find truth through clarity.”
Title: Suburban Drought (Images 3 of 3)
Medium: Digital Archival Prints

Manuel Delano (c’18), Photography and Media Arts

“I am a Chilean artist, and it hasn’t been easy for Chile. Since October 18th, 2019, the country has been immersed in a very harsh socio political and economic crisis. For almost a year now, the country hasn’t been the same. People are asking for a new system, a new constitution, for the politicians’ corruption to stop, for equality, and so much more. Then Murphy’s Law threw a curved ball: the pandemic. These works are a visual exploration of how corporality and corporeity have been affected, by the pandemic, the socio political crisis and the economy. Confinement is not just physical, and the limits of its agency go beyond our corporality and corporeity.”

Title: Cleansing (film still)
Media: digital video (click film still to access video)

Title: Study: Unwrapping: 1 2 3 Combined (film still)
Media: digital video (click film still to access video)

Title: Shaking (film still)
Media: digital video (click film still to access video)


 Rachelle Diaz (c’02), Major: Art, Minor: Graphic Design

“I started 2020 intending to keep a diary documenting life during climate change. Instead, the idea quickly turned into a pressing need to describe living through the COVID-19 pandemic and the struggle for racial justice in the United States. These designs are a highly condensed form of the thoughts and feelings I’ve written about for the past few months.”

Title: Stay Relevant?

Title: Gentrify Rural America

Title: Spread Love

 


Rachel Broussard (c’16) Art

“To navigate the pandemic and fight racial injustice, I seek and create opportunities for connection.  I find these opportunities mainly through Buddhist meditation practice, video calls with loved ones, skill exchanges with friends, and backcountry canoe trips. I am watching films from black artists, and I am learning more about systems of racial injustice in Canada through a meditation course titled “Unwinding Whiteness.”

 

Title: Yellow Creature
Media: archival photo collage, chain, and birch bark

This piece was included in my MFA exhibition, Adaptation. I construct sculptural collages from used nature photography books that offer a critique on the human tendency to commodify the natural world. 

 

Title: Remains of a Rainbow
Media: book pages, twist ties, thread

I cut the paper plants combined for this installation from a book titled Remains of a Rainbow, which chronicles endangered flora in Hawaii. I allude to the fragility of these plants by cutting delicate designs across their surfaces and projecting the sculpture’s shadow on the surface of the pillar behind the piece. 

 

Title: The People’s Cup Project
Media: porcelain

The People’s Cup Project is an initiative by Silt Studio in Regina, Saskatchewan as a response to the Covid-19 Pandemic.  I used “sgraffito” to decorate this porcelain cup, hand thrown by Jay Kimball. The cup was then auctioned off with 50% the proceeds going to local charities in Regina, SK.


Sarah Rangel (c’11) Art

“Pod Series” is a collection of small, geometric clay forms comprised of the addition and repetition of shapes. They are characters in my ongoing novellas in which battles of good versus evil serve as a recurring motif. This pandemic has allowed me to approach and confront my art from a completely different frame of mind; I am using this time to reflect on art as a paradigm for navigating through today’s uncertainties.”

 

Title: Untitled (A Pod) 
Media: earthenware clay

Title: Untitled (A Pod)
Media: earthenware clay

Title: Untitled (A Pod) 
Media: earthenware clay



 

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