Exhibitions
Liberal Education and Public Life
Alfredo Jaar
Friday, 12 noon-8 p.m.
Saturday and Sunday, 12 noon-4 p.m.
Internationally acclaimed artist and MacArthur Fellow Alfredo Jaar is represented by three works reflecting his ongoing examination of the dichotomy between the authority of the image and its failure to fully convey an event. Muxima (2005), Jaar’s first film, is rooted in his love of African music. It poetically portrays the evolving history of Angola through alternate interpretations of a single folk song. The Sound of Silence (2006), a haunting multi-media video installation, confronts the often-tortured relationship between public media and private ethics. Its subject is a heart-rending, Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph shot in the Sudan and the controversy it sparked. The third work, Untitled (Newsweek) (1995), is a straightforward photo installation that addresses media coverage of the Rwandan genocide. It deftly demonstrates the power of a single media giant to define what is newsworthy, and thus to shape public opinion.
Location: Main Gallery, Ezra and Cecile Zilkha Gallery, Center for the Arts
Chimp Portraits by Frank Noelker 2002-2006
Saturday and Sunday, 12 noon-4 p.m.
Frank Noelker has been photographing animals in captivity for many years to show how their lives are completely affected by human intervention. The work in this exhibition centers on chimpanzees retired from biomedical research, the entertainment industry and the pet trade. Noelker visited sanctuaries where the chimps now live a protected life and photographed them in their current situations. His chosen format is akin to studio portraiture. The chimps’ heads and shoulders fill each frame; they directly confront us, their eyes hold our gaze. Their sadness, dignity and loneliness are impossible to ignore. Frank Noelker is an associate professor of art at the University of Connecticut, Storrs. His book Captive Beauty: Zoo Portraits by Frank Noelker was published in 2004.
Location: South Gallery, Ezra and Cecile Zilkha Gallery, Center for the Arts
Keiji Shinohara: Color Harmony
Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, 12 noon-4 p.m.
Artist and master ukiyo-e printmaker Keiji Shinohara combines traditional Japanese woodcut techniques with new materials. His multi-layered prints reveal abstracted landscapes and evocative explorations of the seasons and the natural world. The exhibition focuses on works created since 1995, when Shinohara started teaching at Wesleyan University. With 35 works, the show explores Shinohara’s intricate process, from initial preparatory drawings to proof states and the finished prints. The traditional ukiyo-e process distinguishes between the artist, the carver of the woodblock and the printer. Shinohara performs all three roles, bringing his own vision to life.
Location: Davison Art Center, Center for the Arts
Gods, Demons and Generals: Icons of Korean Shamanism
Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, 12 noon-4 p.m.
The paintings in this exhibition explore the Korean indigenous shamanic tradition, a force that exists at the nexus of the culture and religion of Korea. These images, in rich colors and gold, were not created as art or decoration, but as visual representations of the gods that a shaman honors each day in her shrine, calls upon to help her give divinations and manifests in her own person when she performs an elaborate ritual called kut. The images in the paintings, like the costumes that shamans wear in kut, reveal a lively religious practice that incorporates elements of popular religion, Buddhism and the old Confucian state, often with a dash of humor. To glimpse the world depicted in these compositions is to gain a unique perspective on Korea's ancient past and immediate present at once. Gods, Demons and Generals: Icons of Korean Shamanism is organized and curated by The Korea Society. It is the first substantial survey of Korean shamanism to be exhibited in the U. S.
Location: Mansfield Freeman Center for East Asian Studies Gallery, 343 Washington Terrace
Mapping Through the Ages
Friday, Saturday, and Sunday
From Ptolemy to GIS, maps offer perspectives available in no other format. View examples from Wesleyan's fine collection of historic maps and atlases, many donated by Albert W. Johnson, Class of 1893. Learn how new approaches to mapping, including GIS (Geographic Information Systems) enhance the curriculum.
Location: East Corridor, Olin Memorial Library