Student-Curated Exhibition Series Doubles Up on April 19
Back-to-back shows set for the Parthenon and the Building
Watkins College of Art, Design & Film announces the second and third in a series of exhibitions created and presented by students in the “Producing, Curating, Exhibiting” class, with back-to-back shows on Thursday, April 19. Admission is free and the public is invited.
At The Parthenon, Amanda Sledge has curated Nashville: Three Lenses, with photography by fellow Watkins students Courtney Greenlee and Brandon Daniel Greer as well as her own. Opening reception is 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., Sledge documents Nashville at night through shifting patterns of abstracted light and movement; Greer explores the city with expiring Polaroid film; and Greenlee uses a large format camera, developing film by hand.
Nashville: Three Lenses will be on view through June 2 in the main entrance gallery. The Parthenon in Centennial Park is open Tuesday through Saturday, 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. For more information visit Nashville.gov/Parthenon.
Also on April 19, from 7 to 9 p.m. at East Nashville arts venue The Building (1008-C Woodland Street), Jessica Beard, Matthew Boone and Mollie Row will co-curate The Show at The Building, an evening featuring photography, interactive experiences, installation and performance.
Jessica Beard’s work, entitled “Where We Are” is based on the transition from youth to adulthood and consists of photographs and interactive experiences.
Matthew Boone has put together an installation entitled “Step into the Skin and Disappear,” an exploration in nostalgia and contemporary relics. The artists, M. S. Boone and Casey Payne, are interested in displaying memories, both universal and personal.
At 8 p.m., Mollie Row will present a performance piece, Spectalacra – a “showcase of spectacle culture’s phenomena” – that addresses how infatuation with cyber reality influences responses and perceptions. Attendees are encouraged to bring their mobile devices to participate in the performance.
Seven students in the “Producing, Curating, Exhibiting” class, taught by adjunct instructor Erika Wollam-Nichols, have worked to create five exhibitions in locations throughout the city, April 4 through Mary 4. This special topics class provides students with the opportunity to learn about exhibition practices as well as gain practical, hands-on experience in curating a show of their own, from selecting the work to presenting the final exhibition. The remaining two shows will be April 27 onsite at Watkins, curated by Samantha Carlson, and May 4 at Love Is Earth on Church Street downtown, curated by Corey Rosson.
Thursday, April 19
5:30 to 7:30 p.m at the Parthenon
Nashville: Three Lenses
curated by Amanda Sledge
Courtney Ann Greenlee, Huntsville, AL
Senior, BFA in Photography
Courtney Greenlee uses a large format camera and develops film by hand, in complete darkness.
Statement haiku:
Found in a state of
complicated history
and timeless beauty
“2012 New Years with Emily and Scott”
Brandon Daniel Greer, Nashville
Senior, BFA in Photography
Brandon Daniel Greer explores Nashville with expiring Polaroid film, searching for opportune moments within his expanding city. With over 100 Polaroids featured, Greer’s photographs offer a wide variety of humorous and perhaps slightly mundane look at what makes Nashville his city.
“Window”
Amanda Sledge documents Nashville at night through shifting patterns of abstracted light and movement. Just as lights illuminate dark city streets at night, these images bring to light a new perspective of Nashville while driving through the city.
Thursday, April 19
7 to 9 p.m. p.m at the Building (1008-C Woodland Street in East Nashville)
M. S. Boone, Atlanta GA
BFA in Photography
Casey Payne
Curator Statement: The exhibition “Step Into the Skin and Disappear” will include themes of nostalgia, folklore, Americana, and “Hometown Art.” The last term, “Hometown Art,” can most aptly be defined as art in which the average layman can construct, create, build, etc. Hometown Art is what one can find at an estate sale or a garage sale. These objects, paintings, and handmade pieces are items that are close to those who create them. With this exhibition I would like to create an atmosphere, an environment, better yet, an ambiance of nostalgia and heritage. Through the years I have found myself most drawn to the realms and motifs of nostalgia. Rustic aesthetics, old being made new, antiques, crumpled photos, and overall whispers from the past are what fuel my work. The title of the installation is taken from the last lines of a short story by David Foster Wallace. The audience will be stepping into a room, stepping into a skin, a mold, an atmosphere, a different, possibly foreign, personality. Once inside the room the viewer will disappear, become one with the materials, the room itself. Stepping into this nostalgic environment can possibly act as a rebirth or reawakening. Time will not exist inside the room (it will be void of windows or clocks). I want the audience to feel and experience memories of their own by experiencing, viewing, and touching memories of mine.
“Night,” by M. S. Boone
Jessica Beard
BFA in Photography
Statement: Despite how prepared a person believes himself/herself to be, entering adulthood is as frustrating as it is exciting. Relationships, careers, financial responsibilities, amongst a whole world of other “grown-up” things, become a part of our lives. The photographs included in the exhibition are of those in their twenties with an item from their childhood. The images reveal the juxtaposition between what was, and from that, what is. There will also be an interactive experience in which the audience is invited to share their view of adulthood from a child’s perspective. Where We Are is not focused on mourning for the past. It is not about items standing in as instigators of sadness. Instead, it is the acceptance that adulthood is where we are, when childhood is what we’ve known.
Mollie Row
BFA in Photography
As our culture becomes increasingly permeated by mass media individuals spend more and more time interacting with screens of faces instead of having live conversations. What does this do to concepts of identity? When an endless opportunity to change the image on screen has been presented by technological advancements what is the screen reflecting back? The present exists in a hyper-reality that uses the theatrics of low-fi production techniques found in viral videos to connect peer groups. During the performances participants can display the hyper version of one’s self and be critiqued and rewarded for being able to exploit the space between successes and failure that a video gone viral lives in. I want my show to glorify the anxiety of physical interaction and break down the screens that lull the public into a false since of security. Face the institutional eye, and you will find that it blinks, winks, and cries just like the spectator.