Princeton Visual Arts 2020
Princeton Princeton Visual Arts Arts Visual 2020 2020 Seb Benzecry................10 Julian Castellon............14 Nazenin Elci................. 18 Milan Eldridge.............22 Abby Hack.................. 26 Thomas Hoopes........... 30 Jhor van der Horst........34 Janette Lu.....................38 EstĂbaliz Matulewicz... 42 Roland Mounier.......... 46 June Ho Park................50 Gaby Pollner.................54 Irene Ross.....................58 Katie Schneer.............. 62 Yunzi Shi..................... 66 Christina de Soto........ 70 Bhavani Srinivas...........74 Elizabeth Wallace........ 78 Ivy Xue.........................82 Charity Young............. 86
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This book holds the work of Princeton’s Program in Visual Arts Class of 2020, as shown on campus and online. Making a book of senior work is an important tradition for the program that we were excited to continue before our senior year even began. When students left campus due to the Covid-19 crisis, the tradition took on new urgency for us. Faced with countless crises and tragedies, we saw the vis book as a way to address the disappointments of our cohort: most seniors did not have their thesis shows in the galleries they planned for; we were all suddenly separated from friends, mentors, and the spaces we work in; and the senior class will graduate through a virtual ceremony. Organizing this project has been a way for us to communicate our care for our cohort’s work, even as we’re distanced from each other. We hope this book can evoke some of the immediacy of the experiences we expected, of stepping into galleries of our friends’ work. We chose to make the book 8 1/2 × 11”, embracing the familiar standard of letter-sized paper. This size records our working process, which began by creating layouts with a photocopier. Pages that fold out introduce a sense of the cycling and revisting of images that takes place in a gallery. The book pairs with 185nassau.art, a virtual compendium of the vis senior theses created by Eric Li ’18. While Eric was showing vis students how to adapt shows to live on websites, like artists around the world, the three of us were simultaneously putting that work back into a physical form. While we shared screens from New York, Ohio, New Jersey, and California, we shared memories of 185, the vis building. Especially because this project was driven by our personal connections to place and to disruptions of those relationships, we must remember the nature of the places in question, the building that houses our program and our university. 185 Nassau St. and Princeton University occupy the unceded, unsurrendered, and stolen lands of the Ramapough Lunaape, Powhatan Renape, and Nanticoke Leni-Lenape Nations. With this in mind, we present Princeton Visual Arts 2020 and invite you to visit 185nassau.art. Bhavani Srinivas ’21 and Janette Lu ’20 May 22, 2020
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don’t poop Junior Show on our shit April 19 – May 1, 2019 Hurley Gallery
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An animated journey through the history of a piece of fabric, blending stop-motion and rotoscope animation to bring to life moments in time across two hundred years of American history.
Heirloom Seb Benzecry
Julian Castellon
Last summer I went back home. Some things were still there. My grandma still has the bottles she turned into doorstops by filling them up with water and artificial flowers. I disassemble and reassemble things I find in my room, at home, and elsewhere.
Nazenin Elci
For as long as I can remember, I have been captivated by the grand allure of the universe. I was fascinated by how much we didn’t know about the massive celestial bodies that made up the world around us. This led to me spending a great deal of time watching shows and reading magazines where scientists and astronomers discussed their latest findings regarding outer space. While it was interesting to hear what we now knew, I was intrigued by what we still didn’t know. As a result of this, I always enjoyed the part of the show where they discussed theories of what could be. One theory that was presented that I vividly remember centered around our universe being part of a simulation. In the beginning, the film mainly centered around surveillance. In high school, I remember learning a lot about Nixon and I was interested in how the monitoring that took place during Watergate related to the monitoring that takes place today across various platforms. In a world where our devices are always listening, cookies are being tracked, and someone is always watching, I was interested in creating a story that focused on what was done with the information after it was collected. However, I also knew that I did not want the film to strongly feature technology such as cameras, computers, and tracking devices. I began to imagine what the story would have been if it were set in a pre-Digital Age world. Books immediately presented themselves as the vessel through which the surveilling would have taken place. In some ways, I think I was influenced by dystopian fiction such as 1984, Animal Farm, and Fahrenheit 451. Wanting to eliminate the need for computers and typing, I turned to journals, the analog method of keeping information.
From Eldridge the Left Milan
I also knew that I wanted the film to take place in a world that wasn’t so different from our own, but I wanted there to be a slight irregularity. I really enjoy non-linear storytelling, like that found in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Initially, my search began with time, but eventually I settled on space. As opposed to a non-linear story, I was curious what it would be like if it were non-spatial. In other words, I wanted each character to inhabit their own space that wasn’t the same as any other character in the film. This led me to the theory of our universe being a simulation and each character inhabited a different layer of the simulation. The layers found in Inception were always interesting to me. So I was interested in representing technology in an analog way and the question of realness. Because, if we are living in a simulation, does that mean we aren’t real? Lies were a natural next step after thinking about realness and I began thinking about unreliable narrators and characters pretending to be who they aren’t. I thought about Memento and how the non-linearity was used to create a maze for the audience. Similarly, I thought about the puzzle created by the different levels found in Inception. In the end, I wanted to create a bridge between my interest in astronomy and my interest in film. As I continued to develop my idea, Simulation Theory became a large part of this bridge. I also came to realize that the idea of simulations crossed many disciplines. From economist Robin Hanson to philosopher Niklas Boström, many professionals had their own speculations on the matter. I was curious what could possibly happen in a world where simulations were a reality. On top of this, as Neil deGrasse Tyson said, “What happens if there’s a bug that crashes the entire program?”
nebraska warp/weft Abby Hack
TutorialsHoopes Thomas
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Jhor van der Horst
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the envelope, the topography of memory, excavate, unearth, and heal me.
You shed your skin to let me move, I shed mine to help Lu you remember Janette
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una herida abierta EstĂbaliz Matulewicz
Growing up in a beach town on Long Island, the ocean was a strong force in my life from the beginning. My family came to New York from Puerto Rico, and my grandfather would tell me stories of our pirate ancestors sailing to the Caribbean from the Old World. Once I was old enough to set off on my own, surfing and photography became my means of connection, of communication with the distant shores where my family came from. From the cold, snowy waves of the northeast to the vibrant life of the Caribbean. My curiosity of what lies beneath the surface of the waves that I grew up surfing drove me to pursue marine biology research in college, which allowed me to travel and run my own project on coral reef architecture. Using photographic methods, I was able to construct 3D models of reefs to assess their health and relationship to inhabiting marine life, which are under such threat today as our climate warms and oceans acidify. My art work combines my perspective as a surfer, a scientist, an environmentalist and a New Yorker as I focus on the surface of our oceans in relation to what lies underneath. Texture, color, and abstraction help me create portraits of our disappearing coastline. I am interested in full immersion, in capturing and conveying the unnoticed sublime yet intimate moments that come from a deep connection to the waves.
Roland Mounier
self portrait is a show about how portraits reveal more about the photographer than the subjects by exposing the work process. It transforms time into a tangible medium that deviatevts from traditional time-lapses. The show plays with tensions between mathematical precision and human error, between the digital and physical space, and between the corporate aesthetics and appreciation of jank.
self portrait June Ho Park
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unwound calls toward the embodied experiences of dysmorphia and affirmation. This is a project of co-documentation, a collective memory to unravel our shared wounds. Through photography, these collaborations document moments of ceremony, where rituals of love, loss, and concealment support us in healing.
unwound Gaby Pollner
canary blues is the story of us. it is pain, healing, release the witness, the complicit, the forgotten the lowly, the quiet, the loved. it is my story and should you choose to see it, you may find it is yours as well.
Canary Blues Irene Ross
Since leaving campus, I’ve found comfort in the mundane objects that keep our society functioning. At home, the fridge is the best gallery space to display and preserve these objects.
one small and necessary objectSchneer at a time Katie
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alluviALLUVIALluvial Yunzi Shi
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Welcome to the Fantastical Adventures of Escalus! These works chronicle my betta’s various adventures in quarantine in the form of a storybook as a form of escapism. When suddenly my world became reduced to the confines of my house and human contact became distant, I felt a strong urge to go outside, explore, and pursue my crazy bucket list dreams. My fish were my comfort and companions throughout quarantine. So instead, Escalus is living out those dreams for me. He goes on an odyssey through nature and cities, known and unknown, real and abstract, and the mundane and the whimsical. The art inspiration for the form of a story book originated from Andy Warhol’s children books.
The Fantastical Adventures Escalus Christina de of Soto
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VetalamSrinivas Bhavani
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this is the title so that we can talk about it Elizabeth Wallace
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Ivy Xue
Charity Young
This is not a poster, Book Show and that’s not a book February 4 – 21, 2019 Hurley Gallery
This is a book| Poster Show This is a poster February 10 – 28, 2020 Hagan Studio
Thank you!
Seniors
Faculty
To the faculty and staff, a thousand thank you’s for all that we learned at 185. We are so grateful to each of you for your support and advice. Thank you for believing in us and helping us find our voices. We treasure our memories of the fun we had together!
Seb Benzecry Julian Castellon Diana Chen* Nazenin Elci Milan Eldridge Abby Hack Thomas Hoopes Jhor van der Horst Janette Lu Estíbaliz Matulewicz Roland Mounier June Ho Park Gabriella Pollner Irene Ross Katie Schneer Yunzi Shi Christina de Soto Bhavani Srinivas Elizabeth Wallace Ivy Xue Charity Young
Eve Aschheim Colleen Asper Jennifer Calivas Nathan Carter Laura Coombs Phoebe d’Heurle Glen Fogel Martha Friedman Su Friedrich Daniel Heyman Deana Lawson Leigh Ledare Pam Lins Ani Liu Moon Molson Mario Moore BJ Perlmutt David Reinfurt Jess Rowland Joe Scanlan Laurel Schwulst Tim Szetela Kenneth Tam Adam Welch James Welling Jeffrey Whetstone Amy Yao
We were so lucky to have Eric Li’s exceptional guidance throughout this project. Eric brought humor (and a lot of patience) to teaching us how a book is made. Thank you for your dedication to the senior book project, now for the third year. Thank you to the Department of Art & Archaeology and the Program in Visual Arts for continuing to support the senior book project despite the pressures of the Covid-19 crisis. We are grateful to Martha Friedman, Director of the Program in Visual Arts, for providing additional funding to seniors completing thesis work remotely. We thank Kristy Seymour for her administrative support and kind encouragement.
* To be included in Princeton Visual Arts 2021
Staff Marjorie Carhart Kelly Cave Alyse Delaney Peter Kazantsev Gerson Leiva Orlando Murgado Brandon Ndife Michelle Peters Andrea Santos Kristy Seymour Nick Sharpe Teresa Simao
Princeton Visual Arts 2020 Copyright Š Seb Benzecry, Julian Castellon, Nazenin Elci, Milan Eldridge, Abby Hack, Thomas Hoopes, Jhor van der Horst, Janette Lu, Estibaliz Matulewicz, Roland Mounier, June Ho Park, Gabriella Pollner, Irene Ross, Katie Schneer, Yunzi Shi, Christina de Soto, Bhavani Srinivas, Elizabeth Wallace, Ivy Xue, and Charity Young No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior permission in writing from each artist. Published by the Princeton University Department of Art and Archaeology and the Program in Visual Arts Edited and designed by Bhavani Srinivas with Eric Li Production assistance by Janette Lu Cover design by Bhavani Srinivas Printed by Brilliant Graphics, PA Typeset in MAD Sans by Dries Wiewauters and Adobe Caslon Pro by Carol Twombly
vis.princeton.edu 185nassau.art
Princeton Visual Arts 2020
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