Dear Fisher Museum Friends,
Each year in May, the USC Fisher Museum of Art partners with the USC Roski School of Art and Design to present the Annual Student Exhibition. This year the in-person exhibition was canceled, but we are excited to partner with Roski to present a virtual exhibition of curated student art! ⚡ For the month of July, we are featuring Roski student artists on our Instagram page every day!
We thought it would also be fun to share these amazing and innovative works in our newsletter. So today's Fisher from Home is the first of three newsletters introducing you to a selection of USC Roski students, curated by the school's exhibition committee. Enjoy!
Yours in new art,
Selma, Kay, Raphael, Juan, Stephanie, Maria, and Brigid
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"As a part of a series entitled "C'est Qui," this work is a part of a collection of self-portraits that I made in order to contemplate the role of self-image and presentation in my life. As a triple exposure, this work uses the analog process to allude to the fluidity I see within myself and the ever-evolving process of self-reflection and production."
Storm Bookhard, "Untitled (Myself in Three), 2019, 120 mm color film, 16 by 16 in., © Storm Bookhard.
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"Over the past few months, I have incorporated digital scanners in my practice to experiment with dimensionality and the physicality of objects. This work was made this past week in response to the sociopolitical climate regarding the Black Lives Matter movement. This piece employs my body as a method of delivering messages and references how Black trauma and the Black body is made a spectacle in mass media."⠀
Storm Bookhard, "This Week in History,"⠀2020, Newspaper clippings, Kanekalon Hair, Artist's face and body, 13 by 19 in., © Storm Bookhard.
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"An investigation of the symbiotic relation between body, form, and movement. Showcasing the constructed dress, I directed the modeL through a series of performances. I believe that it is in the uncertainty of movement, in-between what is known and what has yet to occur, that the wisps of our soul begin to spill through. Through long exposures, my work attempts to capture this transcendence of the human Self as it leaves its bodily form, hence the title: Body and Soul." SEE ALL
Brian Xu, "Body and Soul," 2020, self-constructed dress, fabric, cotton, performance, silver gelatin print, 8 by 10 in., © Brian Xu.
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WATCH THE VIDEO HERE
"Constructing a sculpture that could sustain my bodily weight was very challenging. At times, I had to spend long intervals crawled inside of the pedestal, trying to screw in wooden planks to support its structure. Through this working process of much sweat and labor, an intimate relationship was established between myself and my creation. Trusting my sculpture to not collapse under my weight, I wanted to explore the object building and body performance. The Human Cantilever serves as explorations of bodily performance, as well as the intimate trust between an artist and their object of creation."
Brian Xu, "Human Cantilever," 2019, Wood, Self, © Brian Xu.
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Julia Whitlow | @julwhitlow
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"This painting was inspired by the Fauvist art movement and the way life isn't always as it seems. Fauvism translates into "wild beast" and is marked by bright colors and lively brushstrokes. I wanted to portray a desert mirage scene with fauvist expression to convey an optical illusion or hallucination of life."
Julia Whitlow, "Mirage," 2019, Oil on canvas, 50 in. by 50 in., © Julia Whitlow.
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"This painting was a self-portrait inspired by the natural world and its integration with modern media and technology."
Julia Whitlow, "Untitled," 2019, Oil on canvas, 30 in. by 24 in., © Julia Whitlow.
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"This piece was inspired by the expansive sensory and emotional connections people can have with music. Music's power to make us dance, sing, and cry (even in happiness) is something that I consider incredible. Auditory experiences create a dreamlike and almost psychedelic environment for me that I tried to interpret onto paper."
Megan Ong, "Sound of Music," 2020, gouache, color pencils, 12 in. by 12 in., © Megan Ong.
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WATCH THE VIDEO HERE
"For ART105's final project, centered on a generation-defining moment, I chose to create a digital piece that expresses anxiety and other mental struggles in the age of the internet. Quick pacing, absurdist imagery, and vaguely familiar text mimic both the uneasiness of anxiety as well as how many choose to express it."
Megan Ong, "Age of Anxiety," 2020, digital video, © Megan Ong.
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"This painting replicates a photograph from the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre of a couple on a bike underneath an overpass with a tank. I added masks on the figures and labeled CV-19 on the tank. Combining two different time periods into a single composition that suggests a historical connection between the authoritative regime of government and the ultimate rise of the COVID-19 pandemic."
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Larry Li, "Corona Warfare," 2020, Oil on canvas, 12 in. by 12 in., © Larry Li.
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"This painting is part of a series that experiments with cut out painted elements along with photographs of my friends and I diving in Maui. Each composition aims to create a vibrant abstract landscape of brushstrokes with a number of divers sprinkled into the environment. This artistic rendering of a memory is artificial yet organic, clearly not real but still drawing from authentic experiences and photographs, to create something different, a simulation of reality."
Larry Li, "Simulation Maui 2" 2020, Acrylic, mixed media collage, 12 in. by 12 in., © Larry Li.
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WATCH VIDEO HERE
"Responding to the prompt of "ritual," this piece features an intimate series of my good friend's routine practices in the morning. I aimed to capture a collection of seemingly mundane actions that, when compiled and romanticized, come across almost ritualistic."
Remi Frolichman, "Incense," 2020, Digital, © Remi Frolichman.
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WATCH VIDEO HERE
"Responding to the prompt of ‘Virtualities’ and our state of distancing, this piece forms a connection between the natural occurrence of a window’s light shape and the mindlessness of a scroll on a screen. Internet media captures someone’s attention enough to derive it away from most other surroundings and is a form of outside information, something beyond your physical state and what you can concretely touch or hold."
Remi Frolichman, "Untitled," 2020, Adobe Photoshop/Premiere, © Remi Frolichman.
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"This trio of prints is made from direct exposures of a thin, looping “rope” of the artist’s crocheted hair. A distinct conceptual object in its own right, the hair “rope” is rendered both present and absent in these prints, as the photosensitive processes (cyanotypes and aluminum plate lithography) yield only traces of the object. Meanwhile, the 3D line-like object is converted into a 2D line through cast shadows." SEE ALL
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Clare Wallmark, "Traces (Hair rope prints)," 2019, ; 2) Three-color lithograph on paper, 11.5 by 15 in., © Clare Wallmark.
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"This piece arose out of my wider practice working with collected strands of my fallen hair and transmuting them into “drawings.” This iteration takes the loose, individual, curvilinear hair strand and forces it into the controlled structure of a regular grid formation. The labor-intensive stitching process evokes the dialogue I have with my body: a symbolic exertion of control over my hair loss, which the hair strand’s unruly nature – breaking the grid’s regularity – ultimately belies."
Clare Wallmark, "Self-control (Hair grid)," 2020, Artist’s hair stitched on paper, 6 by 6 in. grid, © Clare Wallmark.
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"This piece explores the intersection of parametric architecture with surrealist and expressionist painting. By designing the architecture through an abstract approach, similar to abstract painting and thus not constrained by many of the physical rules architecture abides by I seek to explore an alternative route towards architectural design and representation through painting."
Jorge Lasa, "Architectural Fantasies," 2020, Acrylic and oils, 5.5 by 8 ft., © Jorge Lasa
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"This piece explores new ways in which design geared towards building form can initiate and benefit from an abstract conception. The piece exists as a diptych where the digital render is informed and conversely informs many decisions of its physical counterpart. The design started by attempting to use 3D modeling programs to create an abstract space which then also became a physical piece."
Jorge Lasa, "Digital vs Physical," 2020, Acrylic, wire, cement and digital render, © Jorge Lasa.
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"This piece was inspired by people's responses to the COVID 19 outbreak and some photos depicting comical ways people try to protect themselves. This piece meant to be funny and light-hearted, but let's not forget that comic is always about truth and pain."
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Ruolin Tu, "A Family Photo," 2020, linoleum block, Masa paper, 11 by 11 in., © Ruolin Tu.
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"A somewhat absurd aquatint print about cogs in the machine."
Ruolin Tu, "Stranded," 2020, copper plate, printmking paper, 4 by 6 in., © Ruolin Tu.
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