ART-PRESENTATION: Unleashing
Sarah Maxine Greene was an American educational philosopher, author, social activist, and teacher, who promoted the arts as a fundamental learning tool and in nearly 50 years at Teachers College. The exhibition “Unleashing” are inspired by Greene’s book “Releasing the Imagination” (1995), which is driven by a vision of aesthetic education, equality, and social justice.
By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Teachers College-Columbia University Archive
The exhibition “Unleashing” presents works by 28 artists in 21 sites of Teachers College at Columbia University and highlights concepts of Maxine Greene, whose idea of “social imagination” provides the ground for the works on display. For Greene, artists, like educators, propose how the world could be other than it is. Drawing on a collaborative model, this exhibition puts forward an ethics of inclusion, one that is in dialogue with its built and natural environment, the diverse communities of students, teachers, staff and community members that traverse through or pass by the building daily. Burçak Bingöl presents “Follower” (2017), created originally for the 15th Istanbul Biennial, “Follower” responds to Istanbul’s culture of surveillance as well as to the tradition of ceramics and craft. Created especially for the exhibition Fanny Allie’s works: “Woman-Mass” and “Man-Shield” (both 2018), are part of “The Carriers” a series of sewn plasticized urban silhouettes of people. The figures were photographed on the street by Allié or were inspired by found images that Allié manipulates or re-enacts. Allié transforms these urban characters that are a part of our daily life into new entities weighed down by their load, but who also bear possible new narratives. Jacob Olmedo’s “And The World Will Be As One” (2018) introduces a revolutionary vision for the future of fashion, one that reexamines textiles and garments as tools for amplifying our impact on nurturing earth. Olmedo has engineered a 100% biodegradable hydroponic textile, a textile that grows fresh plants from which he constructs an extraordinary line of clothing. “Patterns of a Tactile Score” (2017-18) by Yasmin Jahan Nupur is an iteration of the process-based research in the fine weaving technique of Jamdani. One of the finest muslin textiles of Bengal, the skill for making it is in danger of becoming a lost art with the automation of the textile industry and readily available cheap machine-made fabrics. The video “White as Snow” (2008) by Rabbya Naseer & Hurmat Ul Ain, runs on a continuous loop, in which the artists sit against a bare white wall, narrating facts about themselves in short sentences, delivered in the manner of a rhythmic chorus sung in their native language, Urdu. Women’s autobiographies exist within the context of their daily lives and is often addressed as a collective experience. To reflect this reality, the sentences that refer to one woman are recited by both women in the video, deliberately confusing individuality and collectivity. The elaborate wedding veils, covering their heads, are unfashionable and worn-out, seemingly inherited from their mothers along with the instructions of correct social behavior for women. The exhibition is accompanied by the “Unleashing ScreenSaver Project” by Marie Meixnerová aka (c) merry. The project looks at the notion of aesthetic education and its diversity across fields and cultures. Also a commissioned video work by Chelsea Knight guides visitors throughout the building. Participating artists: Fanny Allié, Nadav Assor, Brandy Bajalia, Burçak Bingöl, Jean Marie Casbarian, Gregory Climer, Steffani Jemison, Ebru Kurbak, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Elisabeth Molin, Yasmin Jahan Nupur, Jacob Olmedo, Bernd Oppl, Şener Özmen, Rafael Pagatini, Rit Premnath & Avi Alpert, Macon Reed, Saša Tkačenko, Hurmat Ul Ain & Rabbya Naseer, Jaret Vadera, Marion Wilson & Cathy Lebowitz and Caroline Woolard & Jeff Warren.
Info: Director: Richard Jochum, Curator: Livia Alexander and Isin Onol, Teachers College, Columbia University, 525 West 120th Street, New York, Duration: 1/4-31/5/18, Days & Hours: Daily 10:00-18:00, www.unleashing.net
