Chicago, September 2006 - The human political landscape is global, internal, and, in the case of filmmaker, Yu-Ting Hsueh, intergalactic. The 30 Albert P. Weisman Scholar recipients at Columbia College Chicago examine themes of imagination, racism, elicit love affairs in spaceships and family history, just to name a few. Work in nearly a dozen disciplines will be shown, including photography, painting, book and paper arts, comics, poetry, sculpture, and film.
The 2006 Albert P. Weisman Scholars Exhibition runs from Monday, October 9 to Friday, November 17, 2006 at the Hokin Gallery and Annex located on the first floor, 623 S. Wabash. The Opening Reception will be on Thursday, October 26, 2006 from 5-7pm. Gallery hours are 9 a.m. - 7 p.m. Monday - Thursday, 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. Friday, Saturday by appointment. Admission is free. For information call 312.344.7663.
Some of the highlights:
Film: Andrew Francisco
Project Title: The Guru and the Bodybuilder
The Guru and the Bodybuilder is a cross-cultural documentary film projects about wrestling in North India. The filmmaker, by learning Hindi and training as a wrestler, explores the recent history and modern practice of this physical art. The worldview and cultural perspectives of those who participate in traditional Indian wresting juxtaposed with those who choose to attend newer bodybuilding gymnasiums, this film explores broader concepts of modernity and tradition.
Photography: Howard Henry Chen
Title: Multiple Entry Visas
Multiple Entry Visas is a photographic landscape project that shows a recent, newfound fascination with Vietnam as a destination not just for Western tourists, but also for intra-tourists who are simultaneously discovering Vietnam alongside backpackers and returning veterans. What is this need for reconciliation or exotica that is fueling a tourism boom in a country that not long ago was a televised battlefield? This work began through Chen's own travels in Vietnam with his Vietnamese cousins. They traveled to tourist sites that catered to both local Vietnamese (amusement parks that cater to wealthy Vietnamese, inspired by native Asian mythology) and largely Western tourist groups (propagandized and contrived war memorials at famous battlegrounds.)
Book and Paper Arts: Mardy Sears
Project Title: My Curiosity Overwhelmed My Trepidation
Utilizing the language of the 19th century circus poster, Sears creates a series of broadsides on the subject of animal experiments in science. With their bold images and garish colors, Sears uses the circus poster genre as a means to attract and create curiosity. This group of posters creates her own menagerie in print, "Maggie's Magnificent Scientific Menagerie." Each poster will highlight an individual animal and a particular science experiment connected with this animal.
2006 Albert P. Weisman Scholars are students at Columbia College Chicago who are awarded grants to complete communications projects from the Albert P. Weisman Memorial Fund.
Media Contact: Elizabeth Burke-Dain 312.344.8695