Early yesterday afternoon, the 18 students in Fundamentals of Photography II class in Steinhardt's studio art department were hard at work, installing their photographs and queuing videos in a whitewashed Williamsburg art gallery.
The show, "Let's Laugh at Stereotypes," opens tonight and explores stereotypes and alter egos the artists feel affect them.
"[It's about] using weaknesses of yourself as your strengths," said Hiroshi Sunairi, the professor of the class.
Sunairi pushed his students to explore and exaggerate racial and cultural identity stereotypes that played on their own identities and issues they dealt with in society and in the contemporary art world.
"It was an easy process for them," Sunairi said. "They grabbed the idea and started planning right away."
For one photograph, participant Hilary Grisham, a sophomore, photographed herself covered in flour and chewing on a cracker.
"This is 'I'm white,'" she said, referencing the racial slur "cracker" for Caucasians.
"It's the idea of 'cracker white' being totally white."
However, Sunairi's larger goal with the show was to educate the studio art students about the art world beyond simply making the product.
Sunairi places high importance on an education in self-promotion. Art students know how to make art, he said, but the show will teach the students how to promote their work.
"I'm giving [them] this as a practice for what it means to be in a show," he said.
The course curriculum stipulates that, at the culmination of the semester, the students will create a group show held outside of school.
When Sunairi propositioned Tomoko Ashikawa, AG's curator, with the idea, Ashikawa was excited.
A young artist herself, Ashikawa knows the importance of self-promotion.
"Promotion needs to be done," she said. "And it's good for them to see what it takes for a show to happen."
And in order to fully receive the general public's support, Ashikawa, Sunairi, and the students decided to bill their show as a collection of works by "young artists" rather than a "students."
"People undermine [the term] 'student show,'" Sunairi said. "There's a certain quality associated in student work."
They do expect a larger turnout over the next two weeks, but, regardless of the stigma, the artists are excited to simply be able to show their work publicly.
"I'm very excited especially because it's in a real gallery, not just the Barney Building," sophomore Emily Weiss, another participant said, referring to Steinhardt's studio art space.
"Williamsburg is a great place to showcase young artists because people here are more receptive," she said.
The show's opening reception is tonight at 7 p.m. The exhibition runs through December 7 at the AG Gallery (www.aboutglamour.net) at 103 N. 3rd Street between Berry and Wythe Avenue in Brooklyn.
Washington Square News > Undefined Section
Young artists - students - open show exploring alter egos
Published: Wednesday, November 17, 2004
Updated: Saturday, September 6, 2008
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