Graduate Student Biennial 2019

Perfect Posture

Katie Sleyman

Medium & Materials:
Porcelain, piano wire, kanthal wire, shrink tube

Measurements:
12" x 72" x 84"

Date:
2018

Description:
Assessing and analyzing the world around him from his own first-person perspective, Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself” boldly champions experience, understanding, and universality. Breath, touch, and the cyclical nature of the natural world all relate to Whitman, in small moments of poignancy, to illustrate existence and presence. In stating “I exist as I am, that is enough,” Whitman proclaims his own presence, and in turn, encourages each reader to do the same.

Monuments for Love

Jennifer O'Connell Reid

Medium & Materials:
Terracotta paperclay, birch

Measurements:
35" x 19" x 58"

Date:
2019

Description:
To me, Whitman’s writings are an honest, intoxicated outpouring of love, yearning, sorrow, and wonder. I am most captivated by the detailed anatomical imagery of his poems and his ability to transcribe a scene from close focus to wide view. Reading Whitman becomes a physical experience for me, similar to when one enters a garden: the scene presents a chaotic bustle of floral color, scents, and sounds, that eventually gives way to our focus on individual flowers. Reading his work provides me with an intimate new perspective. For instance, the way he assigns human traits to plants to describe the hidden, subtle qualities of nature suggests that there are not insignificant people, things or events, only insufficient ways of looking at them. Such can be read in the beginning lines of this poem, “I Saw in Louisiana A Live-Oak Growing”: I saw in Louisiana a live-oak growing, All alone stood it and the moss hung down from the branches Without any companion it grew there uttering joyous leaves of dark green, And its look, rude, unbending, lusty, made me think of myself, But I wonder’d how it could utter joyous leaves standing alone there without its friend near, for I knew I could not Whitman’s writings exist in my repertoire of poetic research for the parallels they draw between the figure and the landscape and their strong capacity for wonder, transcendence, and for all the miracles and sorrows of both life and death. A motivating theme in Whitman’s writings for me is the celebration of the symbiotic relationship among plants, people and architecture; each has their own role in the workings of a system of existence.

Flux

Elspeth Schulze

Medium & Materials:
Stoneware, fiberglass insulation, roofing tar, raw grolleg

Measurements:
11" x 11" x 28.5"

Date:
2018

Description:
Long, long, long, has the grass been growing, Long and long has the rain been falling, Long has the globe been rolling round. an excerpt from “After All, Not to Create Only” Walt Whitman, 1871 I am reminded often of the old world: the land that was laid down long before we were here. I’m struck by the geologic processes that created the materials we use, like concrete and clay. I see the way we repeat these processes of pressure, heat and time to shape our own spaces. The vessel form has been a cultural icon for millenia, an early, lasting way to mold the earth to serve our purpose. Ceramic vessels once held water, oil and wine. In our current time and place they serve largely as a carrier of context. Here, the vessel acts as a symbol for the material culture we build. This vessel is ‘glazed’ with fiberglass insulation, a silica-based material, and fibered roofing tar, a petroleum-based product. Silica is the foundation of our ceramics, our cell phone screens, our homes and highways. Due to unparalleled global construction, we face a waning supply of sustainably sourced sand. We dig deeper to build higher; even fracking processes require vast quantities of sand. ‘Long has the globe been rolling round’ and short is our stay. What are the effects of our practices and the limits of our perspective?

Curious

Elizabeth Guignino

Medium & Materials:
Clay, wood

Measurements:
12" x 24" x 17"

Date:
2019

Description:
There was a child went forth every day, And the first object he looked upon and received with wonder or pity or love or dread, that object he became, And that object became part of him for the day or a certain part of the day . . .or for many years or stretching cycles of years. — Whitman This work, my own poetic statement, and Whitman’s words are all about this child, the child becoming every day. The child within us from a time we can only remember and the children we are raising now. These small childlike ceramic vessels are carriers of both memory and meaning. They are empty and open that we may fill them with our own recollections of play, discovery, and curiosity. They are a celebration of our first encounters with the earth, dirt, rocks, and mud. Whitman writes, The early lilacs became part of this child, / And grass, and white and red morning glories, and white and red clover, and the song of the phoebe-bird…all became part of him. So too has the earth been fired and preserved into this work. The vessels are constructed as if by a child, whose small appendages not quite formed suggest there is still more to grow, things to learn, touch, and discover. They climb on and teeter over small chairs and swings, playing, learning. Whitman eloquently describes how children are like sponges, absorbing and becoming what they encounter in their environment and everyday life. I too hope to illustrate the importance of play, and create a space so that the viewer may think back to their own childhood, and consider what memories may mean for the children in their lives today.

My Mind Is A Lonely Place (Father's Help)

Brett Morgan

Medium & Materials:
Altered Norman Rockwell Collectible Plates

Measurements:
24" x 2 "x 8.5"

Date:
2019

Description:
Although it has been a while since I have read Walt Whitman’s writing, his celebration of democracy, love of nature, and advocacy of love and friendship seem to speak to the imagery I am choosing to appropriate and build my story into. Norman Rockwell’s imagery was thought to be of the people and for the people, an American ideal illustrated in an art form that was approachable by a mass audience. Using these images as a starting point, I am building into Rockwell’s imagery to open up these American narratives and experiences in order to accommodate an audience or perspective that I feel has not been presented in Rockwell’s original paintings; specifically, a queer or gay viewer. These new objects critique the Rockwell images, but also maintain their form as collectible plates, continuing to be accessible for those that are or may be excluded from seeing themselves in paintings or prints.

Yellow Feet and Cold Belly

Maggie Day

Medium & Materials:
Ceramic, wood, LED, dryer sheets, duct tape

Measurements:
variable

Date:
2019

Description:
My work explores the daily traumas one experiences in the attempt to live up to domestic pressure, specifically as it relates to motherhood. I collapse domestic spaces so that the installation reads as a singular image rather than as discrete sculptural objects. I am interested in provoking the psychologies associated with these domestic spaces, and allowing the spectator’s own body to activate them. The bodily ceramic forms in the installation serve as places in which the viewer can project the self and contemplate feelings of failure, monotony, desire, and exhaustion. I want to distill the emotive experiences of being trapped in the loop of one’s daily experiences and responsibilities.

Chase the Dragon

Ciro Di Ruocco

Medium & Materials:
Porcelain, hand blown glass, LED light

Measurements:
15" x 7" x 31"

Date:
2019

Description:
I was deeply moved by “how understanding our past informs our present and, more importantly, our future.” As I researched Whitman’s work, I loved seeing how he celebrated everyone; even the “The opium-eater reclines with rigid head and just-open’d lips” from his poem “Song of Myself.” This poem is often used in the recovery community to teach addicts/alcoholics that they need to forgive and love themselves. I also identified with his ability to be of service to others in an advocacy capacity. “You shall listen to all sides and filter them from your self.” I reach global audiences through contemporary activist art that touches people’s emotions and gives a voice to those who are most vulnerable. I believe graduate studies are reserved for people who aspire to change the world, and this is what I am doing.

Embellished Gameboys

Sarah Banker

Medium & Materials:
Stoneware

Measurements:
16.5" x 1" x 14"

Date:
2018

Description:
I am interested in multiplicity and repetition, making or using multiple objects to build up to a greater whole. My projects involve doing the same movements repeatedly to build up a greater mass. I am interested in what happens when the daily grind of making materializes into a visual accumulation, and I work in a very methodical and compulsive manner. The projects I set up involve me working in a rhythm, doing the same action over and over again, for hours, for days, for weeks. I become obsessed with creating enough multiples to fill a specific space. The objects I choose to replicate are easily recognizable, and, hopefully, relatable to the viewer.

Fidgety

Nasrin Iravani

Medium & Materials:
Ceramic

Measurements:
10" x 7" x 8"

Date:
2019

Description:
Honestly, I think this is me. Exploring Whitman's writings, give me a sense of identity, tranquility, and confidence. His poems, especially the one ultimately titled “Song of Myself,” invites me to be strong and happy about myself, confidential and hopeful about whatever do. My work is rooted in feminism that entails expressing my emotions, goals, and ideas, in the realm of the personal and social. It is an exercise in communicating my individual experience which is inspired by some poet of Whitman as a first writer who I've known. I started reading English passages by him. Figurative forms which always find their way into my works are related to the concept of women’s right and having great feeling about myself as a woman that could been inspired by Whitman's writing and some other's. I’m so fascinated about.

Vitrified Sound

Raymond Baccari

Medium & Materials:
Record player, headphones, porcelain, plywood

Measurements:
48" x 15.5" x 27"

Date:
2018

Description:
Learning to listen to the world around us is a profound thing. However, it goes beyond the raw and natural sounds of the world, to finding the “music” within our every day. This requires us to take time, be open and curious. That Music Always Round Me by Walt Whitman, describes that process of openness and discovery. I have made many attempts in furthering that exploration with Vitrified Sound, as I connect the content of familiar sounds with the meaning of place. There is no greater signifier of a place than the earth below it. The use of ceramics with the content of sound helps us listen to the beauty we surround ourselves with.

Is, Was, and the In Between

Lilly Zuckerman

Medium & Materials:
Porcelain

Measurements:
15 "x 7" x 5"

Date:
2017

Description:
Call up a memory: how does it look, especially around the edges? What happens when more memories start a queue? There is a cinematic quality to memories, where our emotions and muscles get to live with just a piece of a lifetime in a still scene or a few moving frames. If you sink deeply enough into a memory you can time travel within your own life. But these memories will never be whole, just like these cropped bodies. Their absent parts are removed and present, simultaneously. These bodies are moments, frozen thoughts, exhausted by the invisible forces of time, gravity, and grief. Whitman invoked themes of death, loss, and time passage directly in his poem, “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry”: What is it, then, between us? What is the count of the scores or hundreds of years between us? Whatever it is, it avails not — distance avails not, and place avails not Whitman invoked themes of death, loss, and time passage directly in his works Crossing Brooklyn Ferry: What is it, then, between us? What is the count of the scores or hundreds of years between us? Whatever it is, it avails not—distance avails not, and place avails not

History Rewritten

Juliana Wisdom

Medium & Materials:
Porcelain

Measurements:
11" x 5" x 4.25"

Date:
2019

Description:
In my current work, I am striving to achieve what Walt Whitman mastered in his writings: an expansive, complex simplicity that both embraces universalism and diversity. I see a parallel pursuit in my work of balancing a search for truth through history and societal structures, and the search for truth through attaining spiritual and metaphysical wisdom. Rather than presenting introspective “aha” moments as buoys for others to use in their own pursuits as Whitman does, I present the hegemony that Whitman built from his perspective on the same level as the wisdom he imparted, asking the viewer (or reader) to question the foundation they have taken for granted. The optimism in Whitman’s writings is inspiring to me. I do not intend to emphasize the negative effects of Western hegemony, but rather facilitate the movement beyond this perspective. The desire to reflect back on the world as a whole, while acknowledging that there is no objective observation, and that all human beings contain within themselves a universe, the embracing of contradictions, the acknowledgement of change, of relating to each other, of being alone, of being American, of being human; all of these things that Whitman put to words are the spirit in which I make my work.

How I Carried All of My Regrets

Liisa Nelson

Medium & Materials:
ceramic

Measurements:
12" x 10" x 13"

Date:
2018

Description:
Much of the beauty of Whitman’s writing is its physicality. He conflates agony and ecstasy, muddles electricity, leaves in fields, and the smell of perfumes. His work exudes raw human experience. Zachary Schomburg is a contemporary American poet whose writing reflects notes of Whitman’s influence through its entwinement of beauty and violence, body and object: meat, fur, teenage love, strawberry picking, and cannibalism. In Schomburg’s novel Mammother the main character collects objects that become placeholders for his loved ones. For fear of further loss, he decides to always hold these objects on his body, which causes him to grow “mammother and mammother.” My ceramic piece, “How I Carried all of my Regrets,” is based on this character. While the work is not a direct response to Whitman’s writing, it is testimony to the legacy of his influence on contemporary and future authors and artists. It is aligned with his work’s conflation of emotion and materiality.

This is Weird

Joanna Pike

Medium & Materials:
Fabric, thread, clay, pain, mixed media

Measurements:
23" x 23" x 7.5"

Date:
2019

Description:
Walk Whitman Leaves of Grass, 1900 81. Song of the Broad Axe ...And the future is no more uncertain than the present, And the roughness of the earth and of man encloses as much as the delicatessen of the earth and of man... These lines and my recent work, "Structure", are interrelated in their reference to uncertainty. It’s easy to slip into the rabbit hole of frustration that uncertainty can bring, and lose comfort in the fact that uncertainty is universally relatable; it’s a component of the human condition. Vagueness is not something we humans handle well, and rarely want to consider in terms of our own perception of ourselves and our relationship to the world. It often leads to an emotional crisis or a break from reading the news. Maybe a grey notebook rendered useless by an equally grey writing implement, next to a lamp that doesn’t shed any helpful light, sitting on top of a cushion adding yet another element of confusion, altogether creating a scene that is weird and mostly inexplicable, might be too much too much to read into. There’s dark humor to be had, but perhaps it’s the pleasing softness that makes the work enjoyable.

Body Speaks

Minah Kim

Medium & Materials:
Stoneware, mixed media

Measurements:
10" x 9.5" x 48"

Date:
2019

Description:
Dead Poets Society was my first encounter with Walt Whitman’s poetry. His book, Leaves of Grass, made a special impression on me about the inclusive and bold space he created through his work. His poems are direct and illustrative, but also avoid objectification. “To a Stranger” shows how he longs for otherness in physical and affectionate love, and how every person is precious. Like hide-and-seek, he could sing his songs through the elevated voice of a poet, and yet stay close to the candid reality of humanity — a crucial issue in contemporary consciousness. Whitman’s poem is inspiring in the ways that he exposes social taboos, and allows readers to see the depth of his experience and consciousness about society and politics. By using the words and gestures of the body, he successfully created common ground with readers as well as constructed his own place to stand as an artist.

Restless

Grace Tessein

Medium & Materials:
Earthenware, porcelain, the artist's hair from 2015, mixed media

Measurements:
15" x 15" x 5"

Date:
2018

Description:
I find inspiration from Walt Whitman’s writings on life and death cycles. Each time I encounter death, it heightens my awareness of the body’s impermanence but also awakens me to the presence that is left in memories, spaces, and objects. In his poem, “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d,” Whitman utilizes the blooming lilac as symbol of mourning but also draws attention the futility of the act. How does placing a flower on a grave speak to the act of mourning? In my practice I question the need to preserve memories when their failure is inevitable. In the third line of his poem, Whitman writes: “I mourn’d, and yet shall mourn with ever-returning spring.” The blooming lilacs returning each year bring the return of his sorrow as a reminder of the death with which they are associated. For me the flower becomes the vessel of remembrance.

You

Grace Tessein

Medium & Materials:
Earthenware, porcelain, unfired porcelain clay mixed with the artist's partner's hair

Measurements:
14" x 11" x 14"

Date:
2018

Description:
I find inspiration from Walt Whitman’s writings on life and death cycles. Each time I encounter death, it heightens my awareness of the body’s impermanence but also awakens me to the presence that is left in memories, spaces, and objects. In his poem, “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d,” Whitman utilizes the blooming lilac as symbol of mourning but also draws attention the futility of the act. How does placing a flower on a grave speak to the act of mourning? In my practice I question the need to preserve memories when their failure is inevitable. In the third line of his poem, Whitman writes: “I mourn’d, and yet shall mourn with ever-returning spring.” The blooming lilacs returning each year bring the return of his sorrow as a reminder of the death with which they are associated. For me the flower becomes the vessel of remembrance.

Finding God

N. Dia Webb

Medium & Materials:
Ceramic, resin, plastic

Measurements:
10" x 24" x 18"

Date:
2019

Description:
First and foremost, I am inspired by the transcendental self that Whitman often references in his works. Lines like “The universe is in myself — it shall pass through me as a procession” and “Bibles may convey and priests expound, but it is exclusively for the noiseless operation of one’s own Self, to enter the pure ether of veneration, reach the divine levels and commune with the unutterable” inspire me to think about the terms of enlightenment in my own work as well as in life. The idea of the transcendental self offers us an opportunity to think about how we exist within a greater context and how we exist in relation to all living things. This pure transcendental self is a link to greater understanding of our universe, the moment in which we exist and how that comes to impact far more than just ourselves is an important lesson we can all admire. I am also highly inspired by Whitman’s progressiveness for his time, calling for equal rights for women and LGBTQ communities, and talking about how we need to accept each other for our differences. This theme of loving everyone is a lesson that the world needs now more than ever.

Still

Alex Ferrante

Medium & Materials:
Ceramic

Measurements:
12" x 12" x 8"

Date:
2018

Description:
My work imagines the dinner table, its landscapes and narratives, as vessels containing mis seen , displaced, and eternal objects. The act of touch is the desire to be attentive to these everyday objects. Touch enacts subjectivity. Touch is the exploration of how we relate to common objects, materials and the world at large. That is to say, touch explores relations between self and other. On its surface, the dinner table is a stage where objects enter and leave. It is always in motion and is in opposition to the object of the table. In a larger sense, this tension embedded in the dinner table extends to the reality of momentary experience in a lasting world. My practice investigates a compulsion for ermanence , where everyday objects are containers, holding passing thoughts, moments and desires.

I'm Barely Holding Myself Together

Amanda Barr

Medium & Materials:
Porcelain

Measurements:
10" x 6" x 7"

Date:
2019

Description:
Like many who grew up in the 80s, my first encounter with Walt Whitman was via Robin Williams in the movie Dead Poets Society. I have come back to that film many times in my life; it remains as meaningful today as it was when I first saw it. It led me to seek out my first copy of Leaves of Grass. I would go on to study language, literature, poetry, and theatre (albeit in Spanish), and have always been most drawn to that same lyrical, imagery-filled writing that moves. My work often reflects this, both in form and imagery, as well as frequently including text from lyrics and poetry. I’ve also adopted Whitman’s utter abandon of self-consciousness, his embrace of his self, and his disinhibition to let his work, his words, express his truth.

Nothing Cut Me So Deep

Amanda Barr

Medium & Materials:
Porcelain, luster, wire

Measurements:
5" x 5" x 10"

Date:
2019

Description:
Like many who grew up in the 80s, my first encounter with Walt Whitman was via Robin Williams in the movie Dead Poets Society. I have come back to that film many times in my life; it remains as meaningful today as it was when I first saw it. It led me to seek out my first copy of Leaves of Grass. I would go on to study language, literature, poetry, and theatre (albeit in Spanish), and have always been most drawn to that same lyrical, imagery-filled writing that moves. My work often reflects this, both in form and imagery, as well as frequently including text from lyrics and poetry. I’ve also adopted Whitman’s utter abandon of self-consciousness, his embrace of his self, and his disinhibition to let his work, his words, express his truth.

Plush and Tender

KAT + TED

Medium & Materials:
Earthenware, luster

Measurements:
12" x 12" x 4"

Date:
2019

Description:
I have perceiv’d that to be with those I like is enough KAT + TED formed by way of graduate school, though Walt Whitman’s quote could not be more fitting for our collaboration. Both of us have parts of our practices that are often left behind in pursuit of conceptual challenges. Realizing we had both left behind certain comforts in making, we found ourselves questioning how to make art relaxing again. TED began throwing clay forms that were then decorated with colored slip and allowed to slightly dry. From there, KAT responded to the surface of TED’s pots by finding homes for drawings of plush bodies that were then inlaid with black slip. The pots are then bisqued, glazed, and accented with gold luster — creating pieces that unify our skill sets as well as illustrate a tender friendship. “Plush + Tender” was the outcome of our first collaborative venture. All that being said, in the spare time found among the demands of graduate school, we started making things we liked again and, like Whitman, learned that was enough.

Parts of a Whole

Molly McGuire

Medium & Materials:
Ceramic

Date:
2019

Description:
I am large, I contain multitudes. Each of these orbs is one part of a whole. Individually, they are small; the viewer notices every carving, every spike, and every detail on the surface. The textures are created methodically and evenly spaced, yet each form contains its own character. The individual orbs come together to create a form larger than its parts. Based on my artistic instinct, the orbs are arranged collectively to create an organic shape. Each one becomes essential to the final installation. Inspired by the natural world’s ability to create seemingly organized chaos, such as murmurations of birds and schools of fish, the viewer is reminded that we, like each orb, exist in a larger context. As I come back to this piece after some time away, I find even more now that this concept of multitudes applies, both literally and figuratively, and that the motifs in Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself” are relevant to this piece. Just as each orb creates a new shadow, dimension, and composition to the piece as a whole, each experience I have adds to the structure of who I am and how I interact with the world around me, which is a universal, human experience Each of these orbs is one part of a whole. Individually, they are small; the viewer notices every carving, every spike, and every detail on the surface. The textures are created methodically and evenly spaced, yet each form contains its own character. The individual orbs come together to create a form larger than its parts. Based on my artistic instinct, the orbs are arranged collectively to create an organic shape. Each one becomes essential to the final installation. Inspired by the natural world's ability to create seemingly organized chaos, such as murmurations of birds and schools of fish, the viewer is reminded that we, like each orb, exist in a larger context. As I come back to this piece after some time away, I find even more now that this concept of multitudes applies, both literally and figuratively, and that the motifs in Walt Whitman's "A Song for Myself" are relevant to this piece. Just as each orb creates a new shadow, dimension, and composition to the piece as a whole, each experience I have adds to the structure of who I am and how I interact with the world around me, which is a universal, human experience.

So Long

Ken Beidler

Medium & Materials:
Slip cast stoneware

Measurements:
60 "x 6" x 18"

Date:
2019

Description:
I turn 50 this year. I find that I want to make things in the studio that reference the aging process, decay, and ephemerality. I returned to So Long! after not having read Whitman’s poetry for some time and found these lines, “Screaming electric, the atmosphere using/At random glancing, each as I notice absorbing/Swiftly on, but a little while alighting,” My wall piece, So Long is an homage to Whitman’s electric spirit and his embrace of life even as death nears.

Water on Mondays

Jennifer Kaplan

Medium & Materials:
Umbrella, soil, plants

Date:
2019

Description:
Whitman gives agency to nature through sensory details, folded into color using language which transcends time. His words embrace the unknown. When considering his work in the context of our collective environmental situation, he mirrors our feeling of uncertainty. Our planet Earth is outside our human constructs of hours, borders, sexuality, capitalism, and yet it is affected by them. We are tiny parasites, collectively impacting the planet on an unprecedented scale. Living within the Anthropocene Era presents us with hauntingly regular choices around protecting either human- ity or nature, and we often decide selfishly.

Golem Series: Tradition

Teddy Poneman

Medium & Materials:
Video

Date:
2019

Description:
While the famous Whitman line, “I am vast, I contain multitudes,” can be appropriated for almost any situation, it truly does apply to golem folklore. Golems are monsters from Ashkenazi Jewish folklore, traditionally made of clay, to protect a Jewish community in times of trouble. The golem is both protector and destroyer, monster and victim, cautionary tale and heroic savior. These contradictions, and the various ways they’ve been used to tell one story or another, fascinate me. For example, “The Golem,” a play by H. Leivick, was written in 1921 as a critique of the USSR, performed in New York City in 1948 as a plea for a Jewish state in Palestine, and in 2002 was performed again in New York City as a critique of the Jewish state. The malleability of golem folklore explains its longevity, but makes it difficult to understand the golem; sometimes the golem itself changes within the same story. Here, Whitman’s perspective on war and humanism can also shed light on the golem. During many stories, the golem realizes that it is not human, that it was created to be a destructive monster, and tries to revolt against its nature. While this often led to tragic ends, it speaks to the necessity of opposing violence whenever possible. Also, just as Whitman’s perspective of humanity shifted through his experiences in the Civil War, the golem became a useful allegory to comprehend the industrial warfare and mass destruction of World War I.

Erasing Scenes of Heterosexual Courtship

Hollie Lyko

Medium & Materials:
Dremel erased Commercial Plates Circa 1950s

Measurements:
72" x 81" x 30"

Date:
2018

Description:
Walt Whitman wrote openly about sexuality and love, tak- ing a bold stance in opposition to societal norms. In the poem “To You” from Leaves of Grass, Whitman writes, “I whisper with my lips close to your ear, / I have loved many women and men, but I love none better than you.” Within seemingly benign decorative ceramics, societal ideals and values are marketed and sold to the masses — white, Eu- rocentric heteronormativity prevails. The plates I sourced for “Erasing Scenes of Heterosexual Courtship” were pro- duced fifty years after Whitman wrote “To You,” and I have erased them almost seventy years after their manufacture. Walt Whitman’s poetry serves as a benchmark for cultural change, revealing how far we have come and how much work we have left to do.