CHICAGO, IL December 2003 -- The 1839 emergence of the first "photograph" from its salt bath was documented in an Italian book in 1855. Five photographers now pay their respects to books in Book Light at Columbia College Chicago's Center for Book and Paper Arts. The exhibition runs January 16 - February 21, with an opening reception on Friday, January 16, 5:30 - 7:30 pm. The Center is located at 1104 S. Wabash, 2nd floor. Gallery hours are Monday - Friday 10 am - 5 pm, Saturday 10 am - 2 pm. The exhibition and reception are free and open to the public. For information call 312-344-6630.
In Book Light artists Catherine Gass, Kenneth Josephson, Sean Kernan, Duane Michal and Abelardo Morell celebrate the book in its glory and imperfection, considering the object's form and material, the narrative nature of a book and the power behind the very idea of "the book."
"Books give a physical mass to intangible information. Often, the form and fact of a book are overlooked in favor of the information it contains," explains gallery coordinator Christopher Lynn. "The heft of an unabridged dictionary is disregarded in favor of a definition contained therein. The feel and look of a glossy page is hardly noticed when that page displays a reproduction of a fine work of art. A book warped and decayed from water damage is often tossed aside as unreadable. Book Light considers the book in all its aspects and meanings."
atherine Gass's work celebrates the idea of the book with humor. Her Faulty Diction series is comprised of monumental color photographs depicting the shiny, golden figures atop sports trophies. She rewards the viewer with a sense of knowledge's weightiness and the exuberance waiting at the end of a complete book.
Kenneth Josephson was captivated by the rolls and folds of the pages of a phone book. His work captures the fluid arcs of these contorted, bent and stacked paperback tomes, which resemble the spiraling of ancient tree rings or striated geological formations, lending an air of antiquity and wisdom to the volumes.
Sean Kernan's work speaks of the romance and mystery of books. The Secret Books displays the camaraderie between the writings of Jorge Luis Borge's prose and Kernan's visual poetry, captured in black and white photographs of books iconographically altered with a variety of materials and overlaid images.
Duane Michal's black and white photographs play with the function of the book as a narrative object, relating short tales and occurrences. His fictional storylines portray books as portals to other stories or catalysts for the imagination.
Abelardo Morell created a body of work consisting of black and white photographs of books in all shapes, sizes and conditions. Miniature, monstrous, pristine, damaged, quotidian and extraordinary books fell under the eye of Morell's camera. Each photograph is a salute to the materiality of the book.
Media Contact: Micki Leventhal, 312-344-7383; mleventhal@colum.edu
Artist bios follow.
About the Artists in Book Light
Catherine Gass received her MFA in photography from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago where she currently teaches in the photography department. She is also the photographer for The Newberry Library and Rare Book Photographer for the Adler Planetarium in Chicago, IL. She is the recipient of a 2002 Illinois Arts Council Assistants Grant as well as a 2003 Chicago Artist Assistants Grant. Her work has been previously show in New York at the Organization for Independent Artists, Kaufman Arcade, Minneapolis: at Open Book, in Chicago at the Noyes Cultural Center, Artemsia, Randolph Street Gallery and elsewhere.
Kenneth Josephson studied photography with Minor White at the Rochester Institute of Technology and was among the first generation of photographers to graduate with a degree in photography from the Illinois Institute of Design. Josephson served for over 35 years as a teacher at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago from which he retired in 1997. Kenneth Josephson is represented by the Rhona Hoffman Gallery in Chicago.
Sean Kernan is a photographer and writer whose studio is located in a converted schoolhouse in Connecticut. His work has been exhibited at museums and galleries around the world, including Biblioteca Alexandrina, Alexandria Egypt; Friends of Photography; and the Whitney Museum of American Art. His work has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, Communication Arts, American Photography, Orion, View Camera and other publications in the U.S. and Europe.
Duane Michals received a B.A. from the University of Denver in 1953, and went on to enroll in the Parsons School of Design in 1956 with thoughts of becoming a graphic designer. However, this only lasted a year, and he eventually dropped out to take various jobs in the publishing field. Notwithstanding his college education, Michals was never formally trained as a photographer. By 1969, Michals was making his living through commercial shooting, despite the fact that he never owned a studio. He currently has more than 20 books in print, has had exhibitions in France, Great Britain, and the United States, and has won numerous awards. Duane Michals is represented by the Pace-MacGill Gallery in New York City.
Abelardo Morell was born in Cuba and moved to New York City with his family when he was 14. Morell, who also teaches at the Massachusetts College of Art, has three published books, and a one-man show that toured the country. His work has been exhibited and collected by the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and the Art Institute of Chicago. Abelardo Morell is represented by the Catherine Edelman Gallery in Chicago.
CHICAGO, December 2003 - The music department of Columbia College Chicago will host a 70th birthday celebration and retrospective concert of the works of renowned composer Bernard Rands at 8 pm on Friday, January 16. At 6 pm, immediately preceding the concert, Rands will conduct a master class/open rehearsal.
Both the concert and the master class will take place in the music department's concert hall, 1014 S. Michigan Avenue, and are free and open to the public. Space is extremely limited and reservations are required. Call 312-344-6300.
The program of Rands' works will be performed by the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), a New York-based collective of young professional musicians in residence at Columbia College.
Cliff Colnot, resident conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's MusicNOW Series, will conduct the ICE as they perform a selection of works by Bernard Rands. Other guest artists joining the ICE include Katinka Kleijn on cello, Zheng Huang on oboe and Tony Arnold, soprano
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The evening's program is as follows: "Scherzi" for Clarinet/Bass Clarinet, Violin, Cello, Piano (1974); "Memo 2 - Les Gestes" for Solo Harp (1965); "Memo 6" for Alto Saxophone (1999); "String Quartet No. 2" (1994); "Memo 7" for Female Voice (2000) and "Concertino" for Oboe and Ensemble (1996).
Through more than 100 published works and many recordings, Bernard Rands is established as a major figure in contemporary music. He has been honored with the Pulitzer Prize in Music for "Canti del Sole" and the 1986 Kennedy Center Freidheim Award for "Le Tambourin." His work has been described as "plangent lyricism with a "dramatic intensity" and a "musicality and clarity of idea allied to a sophisticated and elegant mastery." John Von Rhein of the Chicago Tribune describes Rands as "...a voice with something urgent to say."
Rands is the Walter Bigelow Rosen Professor of Music at Harvard University. He was composer in residence with the Philadelphia Orchestra from 1989-1995 and a composer in residence at the Aspen and Tanglewood Festivals.
Media Contact: Micki Leventhal, 312-344-7383; mleventhal@colum.edu
Chicago, December 2003--John Hunter discovered human digestive juices by examining exhumed corpses, grafted a human tooth into a rooster's comb, and hijacked the skeleton of the Irish Giant. Peter the Great executed his wife's lover and had the paramour's head pickled and placed in her chambers. Stephen Asma, Professor of Philosophy and Cultural Studies in the Department of Liberal Education at Columbia College, knows how they did it.
Asma's presentation Stuffed Animals and Pickled Heads: The Culture of Nature Museums, highlights some of the "weird, crazy, bizarre, disgusting stuff" that makes museums what they are today. The program will take place at 6 pm Thursday, January 8, in the Fifth Floor East Meeting Room of the Chicago Cultural Center, 78 E. Washington. Admission is free. For more information, call 312-744-6630 or visit www.intersections.colum.edu.
Backstage in museums and poring over the notes of long-dead collectors, Asma has unearthed ingenious practices and deep cultural assumptions that have produced museums as we know them. Many of his examples come from Chicago's Field Museum, one of the world's flagship institutions.
Museums teach by visual displays, and what they teach is sometimes covert. The Field's diorama of Papa Bear, Mama Bear and Baby Bear carries the subtext that the nuclear family is the "natural" arrangement. In reality Mama drives Papa away so he won't be tempted to gobble up Junior. In a previous century, at another institution, a curator arranged his exhibits to emphasize the "slow growth and stability of human institutions" because it would help deter the working classes from revolution.
Asma explains that an unspoken trust between the museum and the public may make us susceptible to manipulation. However, curators are very aware of their complex responsibilities to make it clear to the public that science is fallible while also driving home the elements of how science works and what it teaches us. "Evolutionary theory," writes Asma "continues to provide the foundation supporting all of twentieth century biology." Yet museums like the Field also now emphasize themes besides evolution, including their own cutting edge research as well as issues of biodiversity, public access and environmental degradation.
Asma also examines the phenomenon of "edutainment" including the ways in which museums use spectacle and fantasy in order to illuminate and educate, how much of current museum offerings are driven by a quest for large visitation numbers and the question of the relationship between big business, politics and what we learn at any moment in history.
Less than fifteen percent of the Field Museum's funding comes from admissions. In order to raise the $8 million to acquire T. rex Sue, the Field partnered with Disney World and McDonald's. "To my mind," Asma writes, "Sue represents the best and the worst of edutainment."
Stuffed Animals and Pickled Heads: The Culture of Nature Museums is part of the adult education series, Intersections: A Meeting Place for Diverse Ideas on Contemporary Culture and the Arts. Intersections, which is a collaboration between the Cultural Studies Program of Columbia College Chicago and the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs, presents monthly lectures and discussions that investigate and celebrate the complexity of contemporary culture and the arts in which scholars and educators from Columbia College Chicago explore a broad range of compelling topics in a format designed to be informative, invigorating and accessible. For a complete schedule visit www.intersections.colum.edu.
Intersections lectures offer Continuing Education Credit for Illinois Public School Teachers. For information on CE credit, contact Paul Camic, Ph.D. at pcamic@colum.edu.
Steve Asma has shaped his own life to include a remarkable mix of passions. Besides Stuffed Animals and Pickled Heads: The Culture and Evolution of Natural History Museums (Oxford, 2001), Asma is the author of Following Form and Function (Northwestern, 1996) and Buddha for Beginners (Writers and Readers, 1996). He has written articles on many topics that bridge the humanities and the sciences, including pieces in the Chronicle of Higher Education, and The Humanist; and he is a regular contributor to Skeptic Magazine. Last spring he taught a graduate seminar on Buddhist philosophy in Cambodia, working with other scholars to rebuild the cultural heritage almost destroyed by the Khmer Rouge. Research he did there is the basis for a book now in process exploring how Cambodian Buddhism combines animistic folk elements with the most essential and pure strains of Buddhism. Asma is also a musician, and has toured with blues musicians Buddy Guy, and Howard and the White Boys, and the funk rock band Peking Turtle.
NOTE: Asma is available for interviews.
Contact: Micki Leventhal, 312-344-7383, mleventhal@.colum.edu
Chicago, January 2004 -- The work of more than 60 young artists working in nearly a dozen creative disciplines will be on display at Columbia College Chicago's Hokin Gallery, 623 S. Wabash, Monday, February 9 - Saturday, March 13, as part of this year's Weisman Scholars Exhibition. Gallery hours are 10-5 weekdays and 11-3 Saturday. Admission is free. For information call 312-344-7696.
Weisman Scholars are awarded grants to complete communications projects from the Albert P. Weisman Memorial Fund. Four of these artists have spent the last year using their art to explore subjects of strong personal interest.
Graduating senior Heidi Beach investigates the changes women undergo when they are seen without cosmetics, versus being made up, in her series of studio portraits of diverse young women. "The differences begin in attitude, confidence -- their entire sense of self," says Beach. "I didn't realize how difficult this project would be, how many women would refuse to be photographed without makeup. This drove me to continue the project and discover why women feel more confident with makeup and what motivates those feelings. My project is not a negative statement about women, but rather a statement about our society and how it makes women feel less attractive unless they are completely made up."
Beach, who graduated from Lakeland High School in Lakeland Florida in 1991, came to study photography at Columbia College because of the department's reputation and technical facilities. "Columbia is also a school that helps artists wanting to find a career in the art world," she explains. "Many other art schools tend to only emphasize the fine art aspect of photography. Here, you get both."
Classmate Sarah Gillmore has also created a series of photographs exploring issues in women's lives. In her series "Bound," Gillmore combines theatrical setups, studio photography and digital manipulation to create visual stories about the ways in which women's lives are constrained. In one color photograph a grown woman is dressed as a baby doll. A black and white shot captures a hugely pregnant woman, her mouth bound, caressing a toy doll. In another image a partially nude woman with a camera for a head is roped with motion picture film. "When I chose to create this project, I was not really aware of many of the feelings that I was dealing with and the process of creating this body of work has been very therapeutic," says Gillmore. "I've been able to create visual narratives that resonate with lots of women, not condemning the paths they take in their lives, but rather encouraging women to think about their choices before that act and also to know that they have choices."
Gillmore, who grew up in Bensenville Illinois with her parents Karen and John Lester and currently lives in Kenosha Wisconsin with her husband Matthew Gillmore, came to Columbia on the recommendation of her brother, also an artist and an alumni of Columbia. "I've had a very positive experience here," she says. "I've gotten a solid basis in my craft coupled with strong support for developing my own artistic vision."
Graduate student Laura Manney uses both still photography and video to explore the anonymity of public urban spaces where people are in a constant state of coming and going. "This theme reflects my experiences as an urban dweller as I record and describe a series of moment to moment experiences that hold interesting detail when captured in an art context," says Manney. "The places of study I choose within urban landscape are accessible to everybody. I want the viewer to be able to relate to my images and infuse them with their own stories. For me, the narrative of an artwork is more important than the media used to express that narrative."
Manney, who grew up in Ann Arbor Michigan and graduated from Eastern Michigan University, brings a background in painting and printmaking to her work. She started working in photography to assist in her fine arts work and decided she wanted to pursue a graduate degree in the field. Her interest in the fluidity of time as an artistic theme led naturally to adding courses and project work in videography. "I chose Columbia for my MFA because the facilities here are amazing, like nothing you'll ever see at any other school. I wanted to have really strong digital skills. I want to teach and those skills will be essential. Keeping current with the technology is an absolute commitment of the department and that will give me a real advantage in the profession."
Undergraduate photography major Steven Stajkowski began photographing the sites of former steel mills in South Chicago, particularly Wisconsin Steel, as a way of discovering and examining his lost family history and the history of the entire generation of Eastern European immigrants whose labors were central to the Industrial era of the Chicago area. "My family - great grandfather, grandfather and three great uncles - worked in the mills from the turn of the twentieth century until sometime mid century. "I wanted to know about that, understand that, but there was no one left to talk about it," says Stajkowski. "So I began to create that 'oral history' as a kind of visual history." The project became almost like an archeological dig - just remnants and ruins left - a post-apocalyptic wasteland - the footprints of an era that is gone. However, although the project began as a record of history, the visual images reveal another aspect. "The other part of the project is about the land itself and the cycle of nature," explains Stajkowski. "At first glance it's just a contaminated steel site, but in the spring and summer the land comes back to life. There is still renewal that is happening; nature has reclaimed the land that has been poisoned by man and his industry."
Stajkowski, who grew up in Hometown Illinois and lived for a number of years in Colorado, returned to Chicago in 1998 to pursue a degree in photography and attend Columbia. "I knew that Columbia would be the best place to get an education in photography that would cover the technical as well as the creative aspects."
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Media Contact:Micki Leventhal, 312-344-7383, mleventhal@colum.edu
NOTE: Beach, Gillmore, Manney and Stajowski are available for interviews.
Images of each artist's work available.