HARVARD UNDERGRADUATE ART JOURNAL
Letter from the Editor
DearReader,
TheHarvardUndergraduateArtJournalisproudtopresentourSpring2025Issue!Selectedfrom almost100submissionsfromacrosstheglobe,thecontributionsinthisthirdissuewerechosenas worthyexamplesofundergraduateworkinartandarthistory.Contributorsreachacrosstimeand medium,andfromartpracticetoarthistory,withuniqueanswerstoasharedquestion:Why(and how)doweturntoarttodefinecommunityidentity?
MadelynMcKenzie’sSelf-Portraits(p.57)andBryanDefjan’sUnquietBodies(p.55),forexample, explore(in)visibilitiesofselfwithinandoutsideofqueercommunities,whileMelanieVeveçka reverse-engineersMotraTone’sresistantmanipulationsofvisibilityinAlbanianidentityunder Ottomanrule(p.19).
RachelHowe’swearablemetalwork(p.65)marksthesharedcommunityofhumanexperienceand thenaturalworldthatpinsusalltogether aninterconnectedandenduringrelationshipechoedin theanalysisofMylèneMichaud’scyber-naturalknitworksbyRebeccaBennett(p.1).
Politicalandspiritualcommunityidentitiessignaledthroughmaterialculturearealsoondisplay fromVermonttotheSovietUnion:JuliaWojtkowskiilluminatesthelayeredmessagingofdivine androyalpowerintheSainte-Chapelle’sstainedglassprogram(p.9),ThomasScheetzinvestigates thepoliticaljockeyingbakedintonineteenth-centuryBenningtonceramicvessels(p.28),KatyJean Turnerexploreshowpoliticalidentity-imaginingwasexpressedinstereotypesoftheJewish communityandconceptionsofthe“Other”inearlytwentieth-centuryPrague(p 37),andClark LouisturnstovisualexpressionsofSovietambitionthroughthecasestudiesofTatlin’sMonument andRodchenko’sphotography(p 47)
Forthetwenty-firstcentury,Zhiyin(Leah)Wang’sinstallationaskswhatitmeanstoforgeidentity andcommunityinadigital,otheredworld(p.61).BothNaviTshibambe’spottery(p.59)and JordanFrancescaMoyd’sphotography(p.63)looktopreservemoderncommunityin remembrance,incubatingsharedmomentsthatfullyhatchonlyasmemoriesgroundedinthework ofart.
Acrossthisissue’swidearrayoftopics,theSpring2025contributorsdemandthatweslowdownto considerthewaysinwhichwesculpt,print,knit,photograph,andcarveoutouridentitiesinsearch ofcommunity forourpart,publicationoftheHarvardUndergraduateArtJournalwouldbe impossiblewithoutthesupportofitsowncommunities.Myutmostgratitudeisowedtothe HarvardDepartmentofHistoryofArtandArchitectureandourfacultyadvisorycommittee,and especiallyfortheunfailingsupportofMarcusMayo,HUAJStaffAdvisor,andEmilyWare,HAA DirectorofAdministrationandOperations.I’dalsoliketoextendmydeepappreciationfor HUAJ’seditorialteam(p.67),whogenerouslydonatedtimefromabusysemestertoattendtoeach submissionwithcareandenliventhejournalwithnewandgenerativeperspectives.
OnbehalfoftheSpring2025team,thankyouforbeingapartofourreadershipcommunity.We hopeyouenjoythisissueoftheHarvardUndergraduateArtJournal!
MarinGray,Editor-in-Chief
ClarkLouis|PitzerCollege 1 9 19 28 37
KnittingtheArchivesoftheAnthropocene
RebeccaBennett|McGillUniversity
SublimeBiblicalHistories
JuliaWojtkowski|YaleUniversity
TheEmpireinHerClothing,TheNationinHerGaze
MelanieVeveçka|UniversityofToronto
TemperedWares
ThomasScheetz|HarvardUniversity
PhantomsoftheGhetto
KatyJeanTurner|BrighamYoungUniversity
PhantomsoftheGhetto
UnquietBodies
BryanDefjan|StanfordUniversity
Self-Portraits
MadelynMcKenzie|HarvardUniversity
Doyourememberthestoryyouusedtotellus...
NaviTshibambe|SchooloftheMuseumofFineArtsatTuftsUniversity
Zhiyin(Leah)Wang|UniversityofBritishColumbia
SovereignGlow-ry
JordanFrancescaMoyd|DukeUniversity TheEternalWitness
RachelHowe|SchooloftheMuseumofFineArtsatTuftsUniversity
KNITTING THE ARCHIVES OF THE ANTHROPOCENE
Figure1.MylèneMichaud,Antartique,2016-2020.Syntheticfibers,jacquard knit.
Rebecca Bennett McGill University
acrylic. Photograph by author
Figure 2. Mylène Michaud, 48°07’41”N 33°33’03”E, 2020. Cotton and
“her knitted maps transcend representation, serving as a testament to our ongoing interconnected relationship with the Earth.”
SUBLIME BIBLICAL HISTORIES
Illuminating Cultural Memory through Sainte-Chapelle’s Glass and Scripture
Julia Wojtkowski
Yale University
TheJudithWindowinSainte-Chapelle, Paris.Photographbyauthor.
Figure1.
Figure2.Panel136(Judith’sprayer), Sainte-Chapelle,Paris.(TheRose Windowwebsite: https://www.therosewindow.com)
Figure4.Panel113(deathof Holofernes),Sainte-Chapelle,Paris. (TheRoseWindowwebsite: https://www.therosewindow.com)
Figure3.Panel138(preparationsto depart),Sainte-Chapelle,Paris.(The RoseWindowwebsite: https://www.therosewindow.com)
Figure5.BibleMoralisée.Facsimile.BeineckeRareBook& ManuscriptLibrary,YaleUniversity,fol.59v.Photographby author.
THE EMPIRE IN HER CLO IN H
Ident unde in Ko
Motra
Melani Veveçka University of Toronto
Figure 1. Kolë Idromeno, Motra Tone (Our Sister), 1883. Oil on canvas, 75 x 60 cm. National Gallery of Arts, Tirana.
“She
is a layered, intentional act of cultural preservation, an image that holds within it the quiet strength of a people who refused to disappear.”
TEMPERED WARES
Thomas Scheetz
Harvard University
Figure1. FirmofJ.NortonandCo., Bennington,Vermont,Cooler,1859. Ceramic,66x38cm.GiftofMrs.Isabel NortonLeonard,BenningtonMuseum, Bennington.
Figure2. FirmofE.andL.P.Norton, Bennington,Vermont,Crock,c.1880. 177x209cm GiftofMrs ElmerH Johnson,BenningtonMuseum, Bennington.
Figure3(left).Fenton’sWorks,“LoveandWar”pitcher,c.1850,viewof“Love”side. 17.7x13.9cm.GiftofMrs.MauriceDouglass,BenningtonMuseum,Bennington.
Figure4(right).Fenton’sWorks,“LoveandWar”pitcher,c.1850,viewof“War”side.
.FirmofJuliusNorton,Bennington, Vermont,Cooler,c.1845.45.7x40.6cm.Bennington Museum,Bennington
Figure5
PHANTOMS OF THE GHETTO
Gustav Meyrink’s ‘The Golem’ (1915), Jewish Identity, and the Specter of Fascism in TwentiethCentury Europe
Katy Jean Turner
Brigham Young University
Figure 1. Hugo Steiner-Prag, The golem, 1927. Lithograph. Published in Der Golem: Prager Phantasien (Leipzig: K Wolff, 1916) Jewish Museum, Berlin. Photo: Jens Ziehe.
Figure 2 (left). Hugo Steiner-Prag, The Hahnpassgasse, 1927. Lithograph. Published in Der Golem: Prager Phantasien (Leipzig: K.Wolff, 1916), p. 3. Leo Baeck Institute, New York
Figure 3 (right). Hugo Steiner-Prag. The appearance of the golem, 1927. Lithograph. Published in Der Golem: Prager Phantasien (Leipzig: K.Wolff, 1916), p. 6. Leo Baeck Institute, New York.
Figure 4 Hugo Steiner-Prag, Fear, 1916. Lithograph, 18.57 x 12.38 cm. Published in Der Golem: Prager Phantasien (Leipzig: K.Wolff, 1916), plate 17. Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles.
Figure 5. Hanz Poelzig, poster for The Golem: As He Came into the World, 1920. Lithograph.
PROMETHEAN AMBITION
Vladimir Tatlin’s Monument to the Third International and Aleksandr Rodchenko’s Photography
Clark Louis Pitzer College
1. Vladimir
Drawing of the Monument to the Third International, 1920, Published in Nikolai Punin, The Monument to the Third International. (St. Petersburg, 1920).
Figure
Tatlin,
Figure 2. Aleksandr Rodchenko, Pine Trees, Pushkino, 1927. Gelatin silver print, 24.3 × 16.8 cm. Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
Figure 3. Aleksandr Rodchenko, Shukhov Transmission Tower, 1929. Gelatin silver print, 14.76 x 22.54 cm. Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis.
Figures 4-5. Aleksandr Rodchenko, SSSR Na Stroike No.12, (1933). Museum of Modern Art, New York.
UNQUIET BODIES
Plasterandplastercastsoncanvas
76.2x101.6cm.
Unquiet bodies is a visceral meditation on the silent, often invisible struggleofqueerexistencewithinheteronormativestructures.Castsof hands emerge from and sink into a dense, chalky terrain of plaster frozen mid-motion, reaching, clawing, pushing against a surface that offersnoclearescape.Thesehandsembodyapsychologicalresistanceto the systems that dictate who we ’ re allowed to be and what parts of ourselvesmustremainburiedtosurvive.
Thisworkstemsfromadeeplypersonalreckoningwithqueerness,how it is simultaneously beautiful and heavy, liberating and lonely. The plaster terrain mirrors the internalized sediment of silence that accumulatesfromyearsofnavigatingspacesnotbuiltforqueerbodies. Thewhitenessofthematerialsuggestsbotherasureandexposure,acting asametaphorforassimilationandpuritypolitics.
Theindistinctsourceofentrapmentisintentional,reflectingthelayeredforces thatshapequeerrepression.Thefiguresfightnotjusttoescapebuttoassert existenceinaworldthattoooftenrendersqueernessinvisible.
SELF-PORTRAITS
Photographonmediumformatfilmprintedonfiberpaper 15.2x15.2cm.
My artistic practice is centeredarounddeveloping and understanding my identitybeyondthelabelsI cherish:daughter,bigsister, friend, woman. Working primarilyinportraitureand occasionally dabbling in stilllife,Iusemycameraas a magnet for the small pieces of myself in the world—architecture, fruit, clothing, and people all speak to a certain layer of my being. I draw inspiration from Classical mythology, engaging with women ’slackofautonomy andtheuseofsymbolismin Greekmyth.
Furthermore, my recent obsession with self-portraiture lets me explorewhatitmeanstobeawomanonbothsidesofthecamera, ultimately analyzing the intersection of my self and the self for others.
Referencingearlytwentieth-centurylesbianphotography,theuse of the mirror reflects, literally, a perceived vanity and a realized unhealthyobsessionwiththeself.Acrossbetweenaportraitanda self-portrait, all eyes point towards me, including my own. The deliberate engagement with the camera by my model and the disengagementbymepushthelimitsofthetraditionalself-portrait experienceformodelsandviewers,furtheringananalysisofwhatit meanstoexistfrominsideandoutsideyourself.
Madelyn McKenzie HarvardUniversity
DO YOU REMEMBER THE STORY YOU USED TO TELL US UNDER FLICKERING LIGHTS
Ceramic 45.7x17.7cm.
Asanartistworkinginmetals,fibers,andceramics,mypracticeisdeeplyrooted in material exploration and storytelling. My work draws upon personal and cultural narratives, often engaging with themes of identity, heritage, and transformation. Influenced by traditional Congolese artistic practices and contemporary craft, I investigate the intersection between function and narrative,creatingpiecesthatserveasvesselsformemory,ritual,andconnection. Myworkseekstocreatecommunications betweenpastandpresent,between personalintrospectionandcollectiveexperience.Whetherthroughtextilework, functional ceramics, or intricate metalwork, I strive to craft pieces that invite touch,curiosity,andreflection.
Doyourememberthestoryyouusedtotellusunderflickeringlightsisan18”x7” ceramicvase,butit’smorethanjustavessel itholdsamemory,afragmentofa timelonggone.Itstandsasanurnforchildhoodeveningswhenmyoldersister wouldsitmyyoungerbrotherandIdowntotellstoriesundertheflickeringglow ofcandlelight.Underthestar-filledCongoleseskies,shewoulduseherfingersto make shadow bunnies who would embark on grand adventures traveling to the endsoftheearthinsearchoftheirlovedones.Thesestoriesweren’tjustmakebelieve; they reflected our own lives, waiting and hoping for the day we would finallybereunitedwithourmomandyoungersister.Thethreebunnieshopping andsearchingthroughtallgrassrepresentsmyoldersister,youngerbrother,andI longingtobereunitedwiththeothertwobunnieshiddenbythenightsky.
[COMMUNITY] 404 Cover image
Mixedmediainstallation
300x50cm.
GrowingupintheInternetage,Ihavewitnessedhowthedigitalworldboth connectsandisolatesus.DuringtheCOVID-19pandemic,communitiesexisted almostentirelyonline.Socialinteractionbecamefragmented,limitedtoscreens, filtered through algorithms, and dependent on virtual presence rather than physicalconnection.
Thisworkreflectsthecompartmentalizednatureofidentityinthedigitalera, intensifiedbythepandemic.Themetallicboxesrepresentcuratedonlineselves, eachcontainingaconstructedworldofinformation,memories,andemotions. The disjointed limbs and scattered brains symbolize the detachment from physicalreality,asourbodiesremainedisolatedwhileourmindslivedthrough screens.
COVID-19amplifiedtheparadoxoftheInternet:atoolmeantforconnection thatoftendeepensdisconnection.Itbecamebothalifelineandatrap,aspaceof shared experience yet overwhelming loneliness. This piece questions what it means to belong in an era where communities exist, but our interactions are mediatedbyunseendigitalforcesshapinghowweconnect,communicate,and understandoneanother.
Zhiyin (Leah) Wang UniversityofBritishColumbia
SOVEREIGN GLOW-RY
Photographyismyvoicewhenwordsfallshort myportal,invitingstrangers intothe‘intimategraygoop’ofdéjàvuthatbindsmyrealitytomydreamstate. My process is slow, deliberate, and unforced, flowing in waves of growth and patience.Often,Idon’tunderstandwhythephotosresonatewithmenowmore thanwhenIfirsttookthem.It’snotnostalgia.It’stheexperienceofarealitythat existsonlyinafeverdream sotangibleitappealstothesenses,yetsomething feels fundamentally off. Isn’t that the best kind of art? Paralleling life, where everything makes sense except for one elusive detail. That one thing unacknowledgedinthebackground.
Myartisnotone-size-fits-all.Stretchitout,tugittotheleft,shakeitout.I wanteachpersonwhointeractswithittoconnectintheirownway.Youmight resonatewithitorrefuteitsnature.Eitherway,aninvitationhasbeenextended. Myartliesjustnexttotheunderbellyoftransparency.Whatiscontext,beyond whatIcanyieldittobe?Ibendthepast,present,andfuture truthsthatexist onlyinmyvision.Noonecancontestit Iholdthelens,andthroughit,Ihold thetruth.
Jordan Francesca Moyd
THE ETERNAL WITNESS
Copper,wood,enamel 7.6x7.6cm.
In my artistic practice, I explore the intersection of humanity and nature through wearable jewelry. My work draws inspiration from archaeological research, revealing the interconnectedness of our shared human experience while simultaneously reflecting the enduring patterns found in the natural world.
This wearable brooch features four distinct elements, each representing a different phase in thefinalstagesofatree’slife.Fromitstowering presence as a symbol of strength to the quiet memorializationofitslifeinitsrings,thebrooch encapsulatesnature’sjourneyofresilienceandthe eventual return of life to the Earth a cycle sharedbyalllivingbeings.Uniquely,treesvisually narratethisstory,offeringalastingtestamentto theirstrengthlongbeforeandafterourtime.
Each element weaves togetherataleofendurance and transformation, allowingthewearertocarry theessenceofthetree’slife, immortalizedinmetal,asa reminder of the enduring Earth and our fleeting, yet meaningful,placewithinit.
HUAJ TEAM
Founder&Editor-in-
Chief
MarinGray
ManagingEditor
JadeXiao
ArtsEditor
AminaSalahou
StaffEditors
PriyaAllen
ThomasFerro
StaffAdvisor
MarcusMayo
FacultyAdvisoryCommittee
INTERVIEW
LydiaFraser
HannahGadway
RoseGiroux
NataliaZhang
On 150 Years of Art History at Harvard 34
Prof.SuzannePrestonBlier
Prof.ThomasB.F.Cummins
Prof.PatriciodelReal
Prof.SethEstrin
Prof.ShawonKinew
Prof.YukioLippit
SocialMediaChair
RoseGiroux
Prof.ChristinaMaranci
Prof.JenniferRoberts
On 150 Years of Art History at Harvard
