Mirrors of the Soul Catalogue

Mirrors of the Soul an immersive experience

A RT E475 FALL18

Mirrors of the Soul: An Immersive Experience represents creative definitions of one’s

identity, mind, spirit, and psyche through a diverse group of artists’ creations. Dealing with themes of surrealism, mythology, and fantasy, the goal of the exhibit was to trace how these ideas are understood and represented cross-culturally.

The artists in this exhibition were chosen because their work reflected explorations

of alternate worlds, mythological realms, and the human subconscious via a multitude of mediums and differing perspectives. The compelling visuals and narratives allow the artists to formulate and share an immersive environment allowing viewers to explore and interpret individual artworks within the context of the whole. These narratives can help us better understand our own consciousness.

The overall exhibition provides a space to make personal connections with the

artwork in respect to one’s culture, religion, and/or ideology. The selected work explores the unknown of the mind, the soul, and the imagination in a variety of media, including painting, digital media, video, installation, and sculpture. The students of ARTE 475 would like to thank the participating artists who provided such rich diversity, beauty, meaning, and unique interpretations of our theme, Mirrors of the Soul, based on their experiences.

Without the generosity of the artists who provided a piece of their inner world to us, this exhibition would not have been possible.

Atlas of My World Sketch, Photography, Poetry, Mixed Media When I learned of the titan Atlas who was condemned to forever hold up the weight of the world as a consequence of his rebellion, I couldn’t help but relate the story to my mental health disorders. I am an individual who has struggled with multiple anxiety disorders, depression, and suicide ideation throughout my entire life without any professional help until very recently in my life. As such, this piece is an exploration of those feelings I had during the period of time where I suffered in silence,

@thepoetress83

AJ POE

a period of time when I did not even recognize myself. I felt like a mortal, calling out to the deity who has suffered similarly as me before asking for advice, asking if life really was supposed to be this tortuous.

My projects are usually conceived from an overload of news, information, and/ or emotions and weave together a layered patchwork of personal inquiries, critical responses to current events, and the “bordered” identity.

My works are often refined over the course of my own processing/ healing and operate as documents of unresolved matters, operating as launching points for peaceful discourse. Although I do not offer solutions for the cancers of the world, my work leaves room for hope and space for contemplation.

Meandering as process, I hope to inspire pauses with my work, placing value on human relations over all else.

Alicia O. De Leon

an exploration of the uncanny and “creep factor” aesthetic,staged in an otherwise warm environment—the home.

@peacesofalo

Domestic Spaces video

@blvcktourmaline | @acidholograms

Blvck Tourmaline

Cristiter Cristiter II Untitled Depersonalization Red Digital Photography Manipulation 10”x10”, 11”x17”

My glitch art is a practice of corrupting digital data and the exploration of how the human works.

“Every time you remember an event, your brain alter the later recall of the event” “Make a copy of a copy and eventually you’ll have a bad copy” “Tell yourself a lie enough times and it become truth”

30x40�

Based on process, I began this piece with an intended image in mind that was very structured within a surreal landscape, and slowly, but surely, was upset with its eventual rigidness and this was the fruition of that frustration over the course of this 36 hour project.

Catherine Bixler

Oil Paint on canvas

@c.k.bix | ckbix.com

Breakthrough

Medusa Color Pencil, Marker, Pastel, Ink, Gold Leaf on Paper

Cheyenne Lam

@shaiancat |chydesigns.weebly.com

30� x 38�

I enjoy basing my subject matters on nature and mythology from all cultures. By integrating wildlife into my pieces, I aim to illustrate a natural aesthetic on my canvas.

For this piece, I focused on ancient Greek mythology and featured Medusa, a gorgon who took the form of a human woman with a head full of venomous serpents, and eyes that turned victims into stone. She is a being of beauty and power. I have always enjoyed strength training and boxing, but I still need to remind myself that strong women are still beautiful and feminine. Medusa can literally kill with a look, but she was still known as being devastatingly enchanting.

I like using strong contrasting colors on all of my works to draw the viewer’s eyes to the focal point, which usually happens to be the eyes of my subjects; eyes are the windows to the soul.

Digital photograph These photographs of Aurora were taken in November 24th, 2018 in Iceland. The aurora at that time was changing its shape due to effect of magnetic field. I choose to submit these photos because the scenes of aurora were amazing. Also, there is much Scandinavia mythology about aurora.

Chunqing Qian

Aurora in Iceland,

@itliswhatitis

Elisabeth Horan

Untitled

Sculptures

Wechsler, Herman J. (1950). Gods and goddesses in art and legend. New York: Pocket Books, Inc.

Skeletal Outlook Screen Print This screen print illustrates the internal battles I was enduring after being in a car accident: the reality of living with a broken neck versus still starting (and later finishing ) my senior year of college; the number of times I cried versus the jokes I made; the constant physical and emotional pain I was in versus the way I acted when I was around others; the feeling of being trapped versus the escape I found in art; unending anxiety versus the mind-numbing painkillers and unforgettably vivid dreams; the depression versus the new depth of meaning found in my artistic practice; the fragility of my body versus the inner strength I discovered.

Emma Jebe

In Greek mythology, there was a 10-year war between the Titans and Olympians. During this war, the Olympians took pieces from Mount Ossa and Mount Pelion to create a mountain that would be larger than Mount Olympus, so that they would have an advantage over the Titans. Zeus found out, and ordered the Titans to go to the center of the earth and shake the world until the mountain fell apart. In the end, the mountains did break, and the Olympians lost. When I read this story, it resonated with me and I couldn’t get the picture of one mountain on top of another out of my head. Thus, I created this stained-glass panel, Ossa and Pelion.

@ekjebe

Ossa and Pelion Stained Glass

The Museum of Traveling Literature Mixed Media 3x3” It’s the little things that make up the big ones. This collection of traveling literature is made up of secrets that were either found at various locations, or donated to the museum. Anything from poetry created by deceased relatives to handwritten grocery lists to historical texts in french can be found within

Grey Sherwin

facebook.com/carpegriseus/

the museum. It is the goal of this installation to go live and travel around the country in a mobile museum-van.

Liminal Vector Art 4”x 9” The frame was created from an altered mirror.

This piece stands to symbolize the liminal period between personhood and identity during the most fragile times of an individual’s life. Even more so, this piece stands to reflect the mindset of an individual that I know who is struggling with establishing herself throughout her transition.

Holly Situ

Mirrors + Self are mirror selfies taken on my smartphone in places. Even though I am the artist and subject of these pieces, the surrealism of the environment is what I want to capture. The phone camera lenses is at my eye level, which in effect, conceals my face with the phone’s physical presence. The subject of these pieces become an interaction between artist, technology and environment.

@potoot | facebook.com/potootphotos

Mirror + Self digital photography 5x5”, 7x5”

Collection of the Subconscious Acrylic, Pen, Paper on Canvas, Mixed Media During a typical lifetime, people spend an average of six years of dreaming. But, how much of that do they actually remember? Most of the dreams are quickly forgotten shortly after waking except the few or glimpses of a few that stay

@ji.hyun.han

Ji Hyun Han

with us. This painting portrays a visual representation of the clips of images and colors I remember from my own dreams.

Kenneth Zhang

@kenfzhang

Fire Ballpoint Pen, Digital This piece and its companion piece were inspired by the weather of Champaign, and by fantasy art in general. This piece in particular took inspiration from summers in Champaign, and from Norse mythology.

Ice Ballpoint Pen, Digital This piece took inspiration from the winters of Champaign.

I created it one day after Elements: Fire, much like how the weather in Champaign can go from intense heat to intense cold in a matter of days.

Messenger

Messenger was a recollection of a

Gouache on

dream that occurred when I was a

Bristol Paper,

little kid in my grandparent’s house

2018. 8” x 10’’

and how I was so afraid of rodents. As of today, they are not so scary to fear them but they are mistreated differently compared to fancier rodents. For this piece I made this rat look adorable by

Kristy Vuong

making it look mystical.

Astrodiver Ink and Marker on Bristol Paper 4” x 6”

Astrodiver is something that I drawn upon looking for something fun do illustrate. We never see these together because they are exploring different worlds. I combine an astronaut and the scuba diver together to show their similarities.

Digital photography This was in Sheikh Lotfolah Mosque in Iran, which was built in 1602. This was designed as a royal prayer room, and during the three hundred years, thousands of people came here and pray with the most sincere heart. Standing there, I greet and talk to every person who prayed here and witness people come and go. Through the timeline, all of us make the history.

Liwen Wang

Hello

Mengqi Gao

Boat in the Snow Digital Painting This piece fits the theme because it is a representation of the inner struggle of fighting negative mental states. In the snow, the boat is almost completely covered by the snow, and it can barely be seen. However, if you look closely, you could find that there are motion blurs of the boat moving forward (there is one motion blur around the boat, and there is another one to the right of the boat).

The Pink Dream Digital Painting This

piece

fits

the

theme

because it depicts an unusual setting with the subject matter of a personification of a tiger.

12�x12�

2018 I have always been fascinated by the clichĂŠ trope of the bedsheet ghost.

This

apparition

which

appears in my new painting, The Cabin by the Lake, is a subject that has appeared in my recent work on numerous occasions. The bedsheet ghost is a kitsch cultural symbol for the spirit, soul, or spectre that dates back as early as the mid 18th century where it was used as a costume to mimic the burial shroud.

As an artist with a focus in portraiture I am constantly interrogating the norms and boundaries of the figure painting genre. My painting practice entails equal parts of chance, improvisation, and calculated elements of realism combined to create humorous painting mutations. With determination, I strive to depict the variety of forms, both real and imagined, that the human and animal body can conform to. The work that I create has an affinity for the strange, awkward, and grotesque while always maintaining a strong sense of sincerity.

Paul Kenneth

Graphite & oil paint on canvas

@paulkennethart | paulkenneth.com

The Cabin by the Lake

Sara Kramer

@sarakramerart | sarakramer.net

Notes on dreams and memories: How to deal with trauma--trauma that’s happened both in dreams and outside of dreams. Dreams happen to someone in a physical way…. They are real to the dreamer, though no one else has experienced them. Memories often function in the same way. A memory from childhood is sooften remembered/re-imagined that it can be changed from the actual event. It may no longer resemble what “actually” happened. What happens when the sensory memory is related to something someone else can see? We often feel certain about a memory, when a relative or friends says they remember it differently. This confusion and muddling of memory happens more often than we realize. There is confusion of symbols and narrative Brain Blanket elements in my drawings. Images from different dreams and memories are comingled. Coherent Yarn, Yupo, narrative is not really how the world works.. our colored memories become cohesive narratives because of the need to create an identity based on a series pencil, wire of stories. In reality, everything that happens flows 60” diameter, together indiscriminately, without demarcation of 48” tall beginning and ending of new “chapters”.

Dreams and old memories are similar in that generally there is no one around who can confirm or deny; you are alone when telling them. Telling the story takes away some of the horror and alienation of the trauma (in the case of a bad memory or dream…maybe even a good dream can feel alienating upon waking up and realizing it wasn’t “real”).

How can I translate these things that exist in the mind to the material world? I am finding it therapeutic to translate my memories into drawing.

The challenge then is to be able to trigger similar associations in a viewer.

Mixed Media I Dream Mixed Media 18” x 26” Starry Night…

Starry Mind…

Ceramics 11” x 10” x 12.5”

Seoyeon Jennifer Kim

@jennsk37

Untitled

@majestic_platypus

Taylor Chism

Rachel Lindsay-Snow is originally from Upstate New York and has lived the last ten years in Chicago, IL. Lindsay-Snow explores themes of ritual, dichotomies (fear/peace, fragility/ resilience, presence/absence), and space through the collection and accumulation of found objects, reimagined through meticulous drawings, sculptures, and installations. Taking a contemplative nature for both the viewer and myself—Lindsay-Snow’s work frequently uses repetition, the reclaiming of found objects and materials, and visual poetics.

Rachel Lindsay-Snow

As part of this exhibition I would like to do an installation, performative, interactive work using hollowed out eggshells. With previous works involving eggshells (like the documentation images in the folder) I have learned that a hollowed-out eggshell, when held in tightly in your fist, will take anywhere from 3-10 second before it pops, and shatters.

I would like to have an installation of two circles on the ground—each about 3 feet in diameter. In one circle will be a pile of hollowed out eggs. The other circle will be where the eggs will be scattered throughout the duration of the exhibition. The shattered eggs will accumulate until there are only eggshell shards remaining

@rachelmlindsay

Untitled Performance Art and Sculpture

Finding The Balance Oil on Canvas Created

without

themed

direction, Finding the Balance was built in a no man’s land ofknowing. Each layer was created with consideration

@meltoncub

Rachel Melton

of the one below it. In some casesareas were left untouched and in others the painting

restructured

and

grew intosomething new. In its development, it became an exploration of the boundary betweenconscious practice and subconscious direction.

Raneem Al-Adwani

@r4mat

Transmuting DSLR Filming, Music/Video edits Adobe Premier Pro The montage was created by using a DSLR camera along with editing and working on a video editing software to enhance the digital storytelling experience. Two very differently composed music pieces were merged together to change the video frequency as the first experience transmutes into the next. It is an exploratory project where a specific location was filmed, NYC’s China Town, toshow two very different sides within a network. Folklore, mythology, and traditions, different aspects within a culture that go under aesthetic, beauty, and the opulent, transform into a surreal experience of pulsation, elation, and euphoria, where another world away from the prosperous and lavish emerges.

Goddess of Chaos Colored Pencil and Micron Pen on paper

Vivian Hong

This piece reflects the chaos within ourselves. Our inner turmoil is a struggle and a blazing hell of emotions that we drown in. Despite all that, it is a beautiful chaotic mess that makes up who we are.

Cutting Ties Micron Pen on paper We’ve all had our moments of weakness. Those times we feel like we are the only people on this planet, or that no one cares if anything happens to you. You feel labeled, that you are just a “friend”, a “tool”, a “substitute” and those labels are the only things tying the bonds to the relationships you have with others. How can you tell which friendships are real? Or if you are just another number to the masses that they can claim on Facebook as your “friend”. And deep down those ties bind you, hold together your tiny world. And only until we muster up our inner strength can we cut those fake ties and make true ones.

Installation Process

Surreal FilM Screening

In keeping with the exhibit themes of surrealism, mythology,and subjective personal experience,opening night programming included a surreal film screening. While it was originally imagined as a multi-part event separated into two sessions, the single-session screening still included a varied selection of films, both historical and contemporary. Several historically significant short films associated with the surrealist movement were screened in conjunction with the opening reception, which was followed by a showing of the feature-length film, Donnie Darko(2001).

Deciding on films to include in this screening was a challenging task, due in part to the sheer volume of great films that incorporate aspects of the exhibit theme. This process paralleled the class experience of selecting artwork for the show from the many excellent submissions we received.

For the short films, I tried to balance better known works such as Fernand Leger’s Ballet Mechanique (1924) and Marcel Duchamp’s Anemic Cinema (1926) with lesser known but equally powerful examples such as Meshes of the Afternoon (1943), a film by Maya Deren and Alexander Hammid.

- Ellen Rice, Mirrors of the Soul Film Curator

-Concurrent w/ opening reception in Bloc Gallery, Art & Design Building Short Films: • L’Êtoile de Mer - May Ray (1928) • Meshes of the Afternoon Maya Deren & Alexander Hammid (1943) • Ballet Mechanique - Fernand Leger (1924) • Anemic Cinema - Marcel Duchamp (1926) Feature Film: Donnie Darko (2001)

Baoru Yu Chunqing Qian Ellen Rice Emma Jebe Holly Situ Kaitlyn Nelson Keeyan Haack Mengqi Gao Nina Deng Seoyeon Jennifer Kim Raneem Jasem Al-Adwani Wendy Wu under the instruction of Jennifer Bergmark

ArtisT Reception

ARTE 475 Roster

AJ Poe Alicia O. De Leon Blvck Tourmaline Catherine Bixler Cheyenne Lam Chunqing Qian Elisabeth Horan Emma Jebe Grey Sherwin Holly Situ Ji Hyun Han Kenneth Zhang Kristy Vuong Liwen Wang Mengqi Gao Paul Kenneth Sara Kramer Seoyeon Jennifer Kim Taylor Chism Rachel Lindsay-Snow Rachel Melton Raneem Jasem Al-Adwani Vivian Hong