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October 11, 2007
Purdue Galleries exhibits examine gender and faculty work
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - |
On display from Oct. 22 to Dec. 2 in the Robert L. Ringel Gallery in the Purdue Memorial Union will be "Does Gender Still Matter?"
"Does Gender Still Matter?" examines current constructs of masculinity, femininity, androgyny, etc., from the viewpoints of seven intriguing artists, said Craig Martin, director of Galleries.
Included are transsexual photo portraits by Mariette Pathy-Allen of New York City; gum bichromate prints from the "Dude, it's Superman" series by Chung "Fanky" Chak of Cranford, N.J.; ghostly stitched C-prints of full-length figures by Elizabeth Crisman of Baltimore; anonymously clothed figure imagery by Lauren O'Neal of Cambridge, Mass.; gender-coded male objects presented in feministic materials by Christina Pitsch of Manchester, N.H.; a narcissistic body self-examination video by David Politzer of Syracuse, N.Y.; and imaginative cartoon-like heroic toy amalgams by Andrew Wodzianski of Washington, D.C.
In her essay for the exhibit brochure, Elizabeth K. Mix, contemporary art historian at Butler University said, "The exhibition doesn't answer the question, Does Gender Still Matter?, rather poses it to a contemporary audience with freshly conceived points of reference. The exhibiting artists are from diverse backgrounds and represent a variety of gendered states - male, female, straight, gay, androgynous and transgendered.
"The works of art on display invite viewers to consider their own private (bodily) and public (social) identities, and experience personal reactions to objects, spaces and situations encoded with gendered expectations, assumptions and desires."
Martin, Mix and Rosanne Alstatt, a continuing lecturer in art and design at Purdue, selected the artists in the exhibit from more than 200 nationwide entries.
At 5:30 p.m. Nov. 1, Mix will present a lecture on the question posed by the exhibition in Purdue Memorial Union, Room 118. A reception will follow the lecture in the Ringel Gallery.
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"Dried – Cracked – Wet – Dripping – Blooming: Installations by Charles A. Gick" will be presented Oct. 22 to Dec. 2 in the Stewart Center Gallery.
Gick, an associate professor of art and design in Purdue's Patti and Rusty Rueff Department of Visual and Performing Arts, has exhibited his interdisciplinary installations nationally and internationally.
"Due to the significance and accomplishments of his work and the rare opportunities for the Lafayette-West Lafayette audience to experience it, Purdue Galleries is featuring several of his installations to highlight this faculty member and locally raised artist on his own campus and community," Martin said.
Gick said of his work, "My hybrid installations explore the intersections between memory, the body, our emotions and the sensory experience that we share with the natural environment, attempting to expose the fertility and futility of human communication."
Works like "Water Witching" (in which the artist appears as a source of water over a parched table of mud and glass containers) and "Flowers from the Mouth" (in which a succession of flowers are produced from the artist's mouth) metaphorically represent the complexities of language and communication, Gick said. Each involves a physical production of objects in the place of words.
Gick holds a master's of fine arts from Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., and a bachelor's of fine arts from the Kansas City Art Institute.
At 5:30 p.m. Oct. 25, Gick will present a lecture on his work in Stewart Center, Room 206. A reception will follow the lecture in the Stewart Center Gallery.
The Robert L. Ringel Gallery and the Stewart Center Gallery are open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday; from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Thursday; and from 1-5 p.m. on Sunday. For class or group visits, contact Mary Ann Anderson from Purdue Galleries, at (765) 496-7899. All Purdue Galleries exhibitions and events are free and open to the public.
The Galleries exhibits and events will be featured as part of October's Experience Liberal Arts Month, which includes a variety of lectures, films, performances, events and exhibits that reflect the college's ongoing coursework and research in the arts, humanities, social and behavioral sciences. Information about the upcoming events is available online at https://www.cla.purdue.edu/experience or by calling (765) 494-7884 to request a program guide.
Writer: Christy Jones, (765) 494-1089, christyjones@purdue.edu
Source: Craig Martin, (765) 494-3061, cdmartin@purdue.edu
Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu
Photos:
(Does Gender Still Matter?) Andrew Wodzianski, "Shorts, or slacks?!," 2006, mixed media (courtesy of the artist)
https://www.purdue.edu/uns/images/+2007/galleries-wodzianski.jpg
Charles Gick, "Water Witching," detail from installation, 2005 (courtesy of the artist)
https://www.purdue.edu/uns/images/+2007/galleries-gick.jpg
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