The BFA 2018 Senior Exhibition is on view at the The Galleries at LSU Foster Gallery on LSU campus through May 11! See work by graduating seniors Ashley Aucoin, Hannah Cox, Elizabeth Cunniff, Vernell Dunams, Demi Francois, Breann Harris, Anne Jarette, Jacob Legasse, Gus Lange, Jessica P Le, Hayden Nagin, and Annabelle Yates! Join us for the reception this Friday, May 11, from 2-4 p.m. after the 2018 Spring Commencement Ceremony!
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Brendan Harmon co-authors new book Tangible Modeling with Open Source GIS
Brendan Harmon, assistant professor of landscape architecture, co-authored the new edition Tangible Modeling with Open Source GIS (Springer, July 2018), the first book to introduce a tangible interface for geospatial analysis and simulations. His project Tangible Landscape is a tangible interface for geospatial modeling for landscape architects and other professionals. Applications include design and planning purposes, scientific applications, disaster management, and educational uses.
The book, co-authored by North Carolina State University Center for Geospatial Analytics researchers Helena Mitasova, Anna Petrasova, Vaclav Petras, and Payam Tabrizian, teaches readers how to build their own Tangible Landscape system with free and open source software, and how to use it as a platform for developing new applications. The new edition is available for purchase July 25, 2018.
The book Tangible Modeling with Open Source GIS “provides an overview of the latest developments in the fast growing field of tangible user interfaces,” according to publisher Springer. “It presents a new type of modeling environment where the users interact with geospatial data and simulations using 3D physical landscape model coupled with 3D rendering engine. The system is applicable to a wide range of applications in geoscience education, landscape design, computer games, stakeholder engagement, and many others.”
This second edition introduces a new more powerful version of the tangible modeling environment with multiple types of interaction. Chapters on coupling tangible interaction with 3D rendering engine and immersive virtual environment demonstrate the second generation of the system – Immersive Tangible Landscape – that enhances the modeling and design process through interactive rendering of modeled landscape.
This book explains main components of Immersive Tangible Landscape System, and provides the basic workflows for running the applications. The fundamentals of the system are followed by series of example applications in geomorphometry, hydrology, coastal and fluvial flooding, fire spread, landscape and park design, solar energy, trail planning, and others.
Graduate and undergraduate students and educators in geospatial science, earth science, landscape architecture, computer graphics and games, natural resources and many others disciplines, will find this book useful as a reference or secondary textbook. Researchers who want to build and further develop the system will most likely be the core audience, but also anybody interested in geospatial modeling applications (hazard risk management, hydrology, solar energy, coastal and fluvial flooding, fire spread, landscape and park design) will want to purchase this book.
The authors also co-authored the paper “Tangible topographic modeling for landscape architects,” published in January 2018 in the International Journal of Architectural Computing (IJAC).
Their conference paper “Tangible Landscape: A Hands-on Method for Teaching Terrain Analysis” was published in ACM’s Digital Library and presented at ACM CHI 2018, the Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, the premier international conference of human-computer interaction, in Montreal in April 2018, and was awarded an honorable mention.
Watch the video “Tangible Landscape: A Hands-on Method for Teaching Terrain Analysis”
Additionally, the team published another conference paper “Tangible Immersion for Ecological Design,” presented at ACADIA 2017, the Association for Computer Aided Design in Architecture’s annual meeting at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
New Master Plan for the College of Art & Design
In 2016, Louisiana State University embarked upon the Comprehensive and Strategic Campus Master Plan process, an ambitious strategic planning initiative that included developing a master plan for the university.
The New Orleans architectural firm Eskew+Dumez+Ripple (E+D+R) was chosen by the LSU strategic planning committee to develop the architectural aspects of the master plan, an aspirational proposal to advance and renovate the university’s flagship campus in Baton Rouge for the future. The firm’s three named partners Allen Eskew, Steve Dumez, and Mark Ripple are LSU alumni themselves, all graduates of the School of Architecture. E+D+R was subsequently selected to assist with the master plan for the College of Art & Design, commissioned in July 2016.
The LSU Comprehensive & Strategic Campus Master Plan was completed in October 2017, prepared by NBBJ Master Planning, in collaboration with E+D+R leading the Architectural Design Standards and Sustainability plans; other firms specialized in the areas of landscape architecture (Reed Hilderbrand, where numerous Robert Reich School of Landscape Architecture alumni led landscape architecture design planning efforts), academic planning, storm water management, and more. The university master plan is the result of detailed planning efforts that have established a framework to accommodate the physical growth and development of the university campus for the next twenty years and beyond. The framework, thoughtfully crafted and sensitively integrated within the existing campus plan, serves as a blueprint to guide future growth.
“Designed to guide the physical development on campus over the next decade and beyond, it will provide a practical and flexible physical framework and serve as a blueprint to advance the university’s goals,” LSU President F. King Alexander wrote in the foreword to the master plan.
The quality of the physical environment has a tremendous influence on the university as an academic institution. The master plan supports the university mission, enhances the existing campus image, fosters a sense of physical unity, and provides a campus-wide level of organization. Establishing a clear direction for the future allows the university to use its resources to their maximum potential and continue to foster a vibrant learning environment.
The new College of Art & Design master plan fits into the broader university strategic plan, while focusing on addressing the specific needs of the college. The E+D+R team reviewed existing programs and vision, evaluated academic facilities in use, and developed recommendations for the long-term transformation of the college. The team was careful to objectively assess how efficiently the college uses its spaces, determine what new construction is truly needed, and propose how to upgrade the existing historic core buildings on campus in meaningful ways. The college master plan was created in tandem with the strategic planning process, thoughtfully promoting collaboration between different areas of the university.
Mark Ripple, BArch ’79
“All three of our firm’s named partners – Allen Eskew, Steve Dumez and myself – were proud graduates of the LSU College of Art & Design,” Mark Ripple (BArch ’79) said. “Over the last four decades, have committed our time, energy and resources to helping it achieve its noble mission. As such, we were honored to be involved in the development of a new master plan which will guide future development of the college for years to come.”
Mark serves as partner and director of operations at the E+D+R. He has more than 30 years of experience in professional practice and has developed specialized experience in the management of large institutional projects. As director of design for the practice, Steve Dumez (BArch ’82) oversees the design of all projects. Under his design leadership, E+D+R has been the recipient of numerous prestigious awards for design excellence, including more than 25 national design awards and an additional 100+ awards at the local, state and regional levels. Allen Eskew (BArch ’71), who passed away in 2013, was a visionary leader of the New Orleans architectural community and a founding principal of the renowned firm that he started in 1989. He was the 2013 recipient of the College of Art & Design’s Distinguished Alumni Award and a commencement speaker that year.
Mark Ripple, Allen Eskew, and Steve Dumez
“They walked these buildings, they know these buildings, they studied in these buildings,” said Alkis Tsolakis, Dean of the College of Art & Design, of the architecture alumni. “They have a particular understanding and appreciation of the campus makeup, a genuine familiarity with the spaces because they have been members of the LSU community for years. In a sense they are professionals remodeling their own home.”
“We owe a debt of gratitude to Dean Alkis Tsolakis, our dear friend and colleague, for his vision and leadership in this rewarding initiative,” Mark said.
Baton Rouge Gallery Presents Exhibition by LSU Art Faculty
May 1-31, 2018, Baton Rouge Gallery is featuring work by three LSU School of Art professors: assistant professor Leslie Friedman, associate professor Kelli Scott Kelley, and associate director Michaelene Walsh. The opening reception was held on May 2, 2018, and on May 6 the artists spoke about their respective work at ARTiculate, Baton Rouge Gallery’s monthly artist talk series.
About Leslie Friedman
Leslie Friedman
Leslie Friedman is an assistant professor of printmaking at LSU School of Art. She is an artist and educator who specializes in printmaking, sculpture, and installation. Friedman is an active player in the alternative gallery world. In 2011, she cofounded NAPOLEON, and art collective comprised of 10 artist and curatorial members with a gallery space in Philadelphia’s Chinatown. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally with some highlights including solo shows at Space 1026 in Philadelphia, Gallery (401) in Providence, and the Delaware Contemporary in Wilmington. Her work deals with political and social themes such as identity, simulacra, stereotype, gender, and religion.
Friedman’s work, titled Smoked Whitefish, is an exploration into questions of identity, social inclusion and exclusion, and gender and cultural stereotypes. “As a heteronormative cis-gendered Jewish woman, while on many levels I pass in contemporary popular culture, I am very aware of the echos of my own minority status, and the screams of others,” she said.
“I find myself asking how we can simultaneously celebrate our individual differences and cross the boundaries created for and by us in order to “create a chorus of shared voices (rather than a unified voice)?”
With this exhibition, Friedman proposes a new gang on the block. She explained, “As we say ‘yaddah, yaddah, yaddah’ – a phrase used by the speaker to skip over elements in a story – we become the Yaddah Yaddah Yaddahs, a group calling for all those skipped over to join together. Smoked Whitefish is my lighthouse in the night, my cattle call, to all of those out there struggling with our current times, but still yearning for connection, driven to action.”
“In this project and others, you can see how I am infinitely curious about how we represent ourselves and how others see us,” Friedman said. “Parody, appropriation, and collage-techniques tie together what I make in the studio to larger movements in contemporary culture. Primarily working with techniques in printmaking, I am also interested in alternative materials, installation, and sculpture. It is my hope that the hanging of this exhibition is only the start of a wide range of collaborations with performance and video, musicians, writers, thinkers, and general inquisitors.”
About Kelli Scott Kelley
Kelli Scott Kelley
Kelli Scott Kelley is an associate professor of painting at LSU School of Art. Originally from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Kelley received a bachelor of fine art from LSU and a master of fine art from the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. Her work has been primarily comprised of mixed-media narrative paintings, drawings, and objects. She has also collaborated with her husband, composer Bill Kelley, on surreal performances and video pieces. Kelley’s paintings have been exhibited in many venues, including the Mesic Ve Dne Gallerie in Czeske Budejovice, Czech Republic; Bangalore University in India; the Contemporary Arts Museum and the Hooks-Epstein Gallery in Houston, Texas; the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art in Colorado; and Taylor Bercier Gallery in New Orleans, Louisiana. Her work can be viewed at kelliscottkelley.com.
In Kelley’s work, figures, animals, and objects appear in metaphorical narratives, which explore humankind’s connections, disconnections, and impact on the natural world. “The primary focus in my work has been to create metaphorical narrative images,” she said.
The pieces in the exhibition titled Shadow, are about relationships – to one’s self and to “the other,” Kelley said. “In the images, there is an exploration of dualities that exist within ourselves, and the dichotomies that we confront through attempts to connect to other sentient beings, and with the natural world,” she said. “We all encounter and embody oppositions such as: male/female, animal/human, young and old.”
The “characters” depicted interact in ambiguous domestic and landscape settings, confronting intimacy and alienation. They each, at times, embody aspects of “the shadow.” There is an underlying sense of longing and loss, and a yearning for connection and unity. The pieces are painted on re-purposed vintage linens in an attempt to make the work in an ecologically conscious way. The linens also reference the history of women’s handicrafts and domesticity.
Shadow takes inspiration from Carl Jung, who once said, “Everyone carries a shadow and the less it is embodied in the individual’s conscious life, the blacker and denser it is. It may be (in part) one’s link to more primitive animal instincts, which are superseded during early childhood by the conscious mind.”
About Michaelene Walsh
Michaelene Walsh
Michaelene “Mikey” Walsh is associate director and an associate professor of art/ceramics at LSU. She received her BFA from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and her MFA from N.Y.S.C.C. at Alfred, NY. She has held teaching positions at Massachusetts College of Art, the University of Georgia, the University of Washington, Virginia Commonwealth University and the University of California-Davis in addition to instructing at numerous alternative-learning venues such as Haystack School of Crafts, Anderson Ranch Arts Center, Arrowmont, and Santa Fe Clay. Her sculptural ceramic work is exhibited internationally and is also featured in the publication The Figure in Clay by Lark Books.
“I would say that the impetus for my work it comes from my experience of reading poetry,” Walsh said. “I am interested in how poets arrive at compelling poems. A good poet can take an ordinary word or image and put it together with another somewhat ordinary word or image to create a surprising feeling – a sensation in the gut that is unusual, striking, fresh and memorable. My goal as an artist is to try to do this visually – to bring seemingly disparate, ordinary, or unremarkable images together to form something memorable.”
Bound, Walsh’s current work on display at the Baton Rouge Gallery, is “an exercise in appreciation that invites participation from the audience,” according to the gallery. An installation comprised of more than 100 ceramic bows, presented in a wide array of colors and patterns, are intended to be gifts of gratitude.
Walsh was inspired by a desire to express her own gratitude for where she finds herself at this point in her own life. “I spend a good deal of my time trying to make meaningful objects with my hands,” she said. “It is what I have dedicated my adulthood to and it is why – ultimately – I ended up living in Baton Rouge. Much in the way a plumber fixes a sink or my daughter’s teacher explains fractions, creating is one facet of how I contribute to this community. Bound stemmed from a simple desire to give of what I know and value, as much acknowledgement and appreciation for what others do and bring.”
Over the past several months she has made the ceramic bows. “Colored ribbons serve as symbols within our culture, visual reminders of what people support, value, or believe in,” Walsh said. “This project embraces that idea, my hope is to create a veritable constellation around our community – one suggesting the many ways in which we all are, or can be – bound.”
The exhibition is on view at the Baton Rouge Gallery through the month of May and is free and open to the public during gallery hours.
Baton Rouge Gallery
About Baton Rouge Gallery
The Baton Rouge Gallery, Center for Contemporary Art is a non-profit contemporary art gallery, located at BREC’s historic City Park pavilion. The gallery offers contemporary art exhibitions, featuring professional, local, and national artists, and hosts special performances, a spoken word program, and special juried and invitational exhibitions. Monthly exhibitions feature the work of current artist members, including photographers, painters, sculptors, stained-glass artists, printmakers, ceramists, multi-media and installation artists. Opening receptions are free and open the public and are held for each exhibition, 7–9 p.m., on the first Wednesday of every month.
About the School of Art
The LSU School of Art combines the best of both worlds: the resources and faculty of a large liberal arts institution and the personal attention that comes in a close-knit community. Students in the School of Art develop specialized skills while experimenting with various mediums, exploring their own creative intuition, and studying art history and contemporary art theory. Education comes from intensive critiques, working studio classes, dedicated professors, and engagement with the larger arts community through a curriculum that combines academic teaching and hands-on experiences, both on and off campus. For more information, visit art.lsu.edu.
Alumni Spotlight: Yvonne Cao, MFA 2012
Yvonne Cao is a graphic designer, typographer, and educator who was born and raised in Hunan, China. She came to the United States for an honors exchange program at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro, TN and received a BA in mass communication, Department of Electronic Media Production in 2009, and then went on to LSU for her master’s degree. She received an MFA in graphic design in 2012. As a designer she draws on her dual cultural backgrounds, and she has worked for renowned clients such as Johnsons & Johnsons, Colgate, Coca-Cola, Chevrolet, and Pier 1 Imports.
Yvonne Cao (MFA 2012)
She is currently an assistant professor of graphic design at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, TX. Yvonne teaches interactive design, typography and publication design. Her areas of focus include cross-cultural branding, typography, interactive design, UI/UX design and motion graphics. Her professional graphic design work has received recognition from the HOW International Design Awards, GRAPHIS, American Advertising Awards, Summit International Awards, Horizon Interactive Awards and UCDA Design awards.
In her recent research “Visual Translation,” which started as a thesis project in LSU, she focuses on how to facilitate a smooth visual transition in cross-cultural branding by using typography. To move beyond traditional type design, her work introduces an innovative methodology for designing typefaces using existing Latin typefaces; it is created as an educational tool, which seeks to help graphic design students and type enthusiasts, with an emphasis on designers who work on cross-cultural branding. She has presented her scholarly research at major design conferences the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) and TypeCon.
Her journey to become a designer started back in her first year living in U.S., she said. “I took many beautiful tourist photographs in order to preserve those memories, and then I began organizing type in the layouts and making everything fit and still be legible.”
Yvonne realized that she was interested in the design itself, and really enjoyed creating these visual works. “I’ve come to realize that everything we do is experiential, from packages to posters to brochures,” she said. “Everything we create needs to take the end users’ experience into account.”
She chose the LSU masters program because the teaching assistantship offered “a great opportunity to practice teaching,” she said; Yvonne aspired to go into a career in higher education. While at LSU, she served as an instructor for different courses, from traditional graphic design in print and analogue media, to classes that include the more advanced technologies and techniques. Through those experiences she learned “to foster and support a range of student learning styles, which in turn leads to a better learning environment.”
Teaching a seminar course prepared graduate students who were pursuing a teaching career with “a total package from application guidelines, course materials to teaching methodologies,” she said. “The course engaged us in critical discussions of current scholarship in the fields of learning and pedagogy, with opportunities to apply new pedagogical approaches in our own teaching practice.”
Though she chose LSU primarily for the teaching opportunities, Yvonne also thought that Louisiana would be an interesting cultural experience, coming from China, and she was particularly intrigued by Cajun culture. After graduation she was offered the assistant professorship position from the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor and moved to Texas.
As a graphic design educator, her focus is to construct a teaching environment that is friendly to discussion and asking questions, where students are encouraged to develop problem-solving strategies and lifelong learning skills. “For me, teaching is a collective and reflective enterprise in which teachers and students at all levels learn from each other in a respectful and thoughtful environment,” she said. “I feel I benefit from this symbiosis as much as the students.”
Besides teaching and conducting research, Yvonne runs a freelance business that provides design services including brand development/support, identity systems, book/publication design, and UIUX Design. “I have generated work from clients both large and small – from boutique businesses and start-ups to Fortune 500 companies,” she said.
Yvonne said that becoming a graphic designer has changed the way she perceives the world. “I think being a designer has increased my thirst for learning,” she said. “The more I know, the more I want to know – and the better my solutions. Bruce Mau said, ‘It’s not about the world of design, it’s about the design of the world.’ I wanted to be a contributor to the evolution of the world.”
Alumni Spotlight: Katie Burk, BFA 2008
Louisiana native Katie Burk received her BFA from LSU in 2008, and moved to Washington, D.C. to pursue a career in graphic design. Currently, she is senior graphic designer at the marketing agency Nobody in Washington, D.C. Nobody develops brand strategies, media campaigns, and social content to help define clients’ brands. Katie has expertise designing for diverse clients, across a range of mediums.
“I like to think my passion for what I do always shines through,” Katie said. “There’s a lot of variety in what I do. At my past and current jobs, I’ve gotten to do everything from create and arrange props for photo shoots, design physical products such as packaging and bags, and do a lot of digital design at the same time.”
Take for example a recent project for the White House Historical Association (WHHA): Katie designed and helped develop the content for infographics for the Movember “Facial Hair of the U.S. Presidents,” a fun series that was part of the WHHA’s partnership with the Washington Nationals Baseball team. “The Movember graphic is a collection of the past U.S. presidents with facial hair, along with ‘manly’ facts as researched by my small Nobody Media team and me (and confirmed by the WHHA Historians!)” she said in her blog. “The design itself is play off of vintage presidential campaign posters.”
Movember Poster, by Katie Burk (Nobody)
Other interesting recent projects Katie has worked on include a stop motion video for Nando’s PERi-PERi campaign; designing matchbox game graphics/packaging for Swiss game company Helvetiq; and creating these stickers: “I did an artist collaboration with writer/producer/person extraordinaire, Jennifer Mills,” Katie said. “Together, we made these horrifyingly fun stickers of host Peter Sagal and scorekeeper Bill Curtis for a kids’ edition of NPR & WBEZ’s Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me!”
Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me! Stickers, by Katie Burk and Jennifer Mills
Katie was the design project manager, art director, and production designer for the rebrand of NPR’s Oddly Informative News Quiz, Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me! (The rebrand went live in September 2013, replacing the original 1998 look.) She also worked on numerous items for the NPR Shop.
From 2008 to early 2014, Katie was a graphic designer at NPR headquarters, in the marketing, branding, and communications department, where she contributed to marketing campaigns including “I ‘Heart’ NPR.” (NPR: National Public Radio is a non-profit membership media organization based in Washington, D.C. that serves as a national syndicator to a network of over 1,000 public radio stations in the United States.) She enjoyed working on a wide range of projects for NPR:
The NPR Calendar, by Katie Burk (NPR)
She was also previously the graphic designer on the live events team at The Atlantic, where she worked on branding for local, national, and international events from 2014 to early 2015. The magazine is a leading literary publication, subscribed to by over 450,000 readers a year. There she had the opportunity to design for a huge, widespread audience.
Katie didn’t intend to go into graphic design when she entered LSU, but found her passion while taking classes at the School of Art. “I had done after-school painting classes throughout my high school years, but I hadn’t really thought about design until I started taking studio art classes at LSU my freshman year,” she said. “When I learned what it was all about from people who were already in the program, I thought it could be the right path for me.”
She said that the graphic design curriculum being part of the Studio Art program shaped how she works today. “I still get to use my skills from all of the photography, drawing, printmaking, and even ceramics classes that I took,” she said. “I’ve always been one to do things by hand first, before I get to the computer. That was also a huge part of LSU’s graphic design curriculum, and I still try to do that now.”
Katie is also a ceramicist. “Ceramics was one of my original loves in college, even before graphic design,” she said. “The mix of form and function is what really draws me to it. I’ve picked it up again, having taken classes over the past year at Corcoran School of the Arts & Design. My counter tops now overflow with my newly-fired friends.”
As for other fun facts? “My real middle name is Foto.”
View Katie’s work at mizburk.com.
AWARDS & PUBLICATIONS
2018
Addy Award, DC Ad Club (Nando’s Everyone is Welcome campaign)
2017
Shortlisted at Cannes Lions (Nando’s Everyone is Welcome campaign)
2015
Pharmitzvah Announcements featured on Under Consideration’s FPO blog
2014
Addy Award, DC Ad Club (2014 NPR Calendar)
AIGA 50 Award, AIGA DC (2013 NPR Calendar)
2013
District Two Advertising Federation Award (2013 NPR Calendar)
Gold Addy Award, DC Ad Club (2013 NPR Calendar)
Silver Addy Award, DC Ad Club (NPR 2012 Election Buttons)
2012
HOW InHowse Magazine Award (NPR 2011 Calendar)
Gold Addy Award, DC Ad Club (2012 NPR Calendar)
Gold Addy Award, DC Ad Club (2011 NPR Holiday Card)
Silver Addy Award, DC Ad Club (I Heart NPR Campaign)
Two licensed t-shirt designs available at national retailers for NPR
2011
Gold Addy Award, DC Ad Club (2011 NPR Calendar)
Published in Ellen Lupton’s Thinking with Type second edition
Photo credit in This is NPR published by Chronicle Books
2010
Gold Addy Award, DC Ad Club (2009 NPR Holiday Cards)
Print Magazine’s Regional Design Annual Award (2009 NPR Holiday Cards)
HOW InHowse Magazine Award (2009 NPR Holiday Cards and NPR Without the Dignity)
Licenced t-shirt design available at national retailers for NPR
2009
Silver Addy Award, DC Ad Club (2008 NPR Election Buttons)
2008
Gold Addy Award, Baton Rouge AdFed (AIGA Portfolio Day)
Third Place, AIGA Sustainable Design Poster Contest
2007
Silver Addy Award, Baton Rouge AdFed (Sock Monkey Stamps)
Design Event Spring 2018
The Design Event hosted by the LSU School of Interior Design was Thursday, April 26 at the LSU Design Building. There was an exhibit featuring interior design students’ work from 5:30-7:30 p.m., followed by scholarship awards at 7:30 p.m. in the Design Building Auditorium (room 103) to honor interior design students.
Renowned Artist Carrie Mae Weems Visits LSU; Works With Art Students
Influential contemporary American artist Carrie Mae Weems has, for the past 30 years, has investigated family relationships, cultural identity, sexism, class, political systems and the consequences of power. As the LSU School of Art’s 2017-18 Reilly Visiting Artist and Nadine Carter Russell Chair for the LSU College of Art & Design, Weems is broadening and making explicit these dialogues, and engaging the LSU and Baton Rouge communities.
Weems, described by New York Times art critic Holland Cotter as “a superb image maker and a moral force, focused and irrepressible,” has pushed contemporary discourse through her complex body of work, which incorporates photographs, text, fabric, audio, digital images, installation and video. She has participated in numerous exhibitions at major national and international museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Solomon Guggenheim Museum in New York, the Tate Modern in London, and the Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo in Seville, Spain, and she is represented in collections around the world.
As the Nadine Carter Russell Chair, Weems worked with art students throughout the spring 2018 semester. She visited School of Art Dixon Smith Professor Kristine Thompson’s class to work with photography students on numerous projects throughout the 2017-2018 academic year.
During Weems’ initial visit in November 2017, she took part in a critique of student work in Thompson’s Intermediate Photography course. The students completed a project called “Bearing Witness,” in which each student selected a social or cultural issue that he/she felt passionate about and determined the best way to illustrate it in a photographic series, said Kristine Thompson, assistant professor of photography.
“Carrie’s work over the course of her career has grappled with issues of power, identity, and humanity, so it was a gift for the students to have someone with such visual acuity and social awareness to respond to these particular projects,” she said.
During that initial visit, Weems also planted the seeds for a collaborative project – a kind of time capsule – that she hoped to complete with students as a way of marking this particular political moment in time. On Weems’ most recent visit, three classes came together (Thompson’s Intermediate Photography class, Assistant Professor Johanna Warwick’s Advanced Digital Photography class, and graduate students in Associate Professor Kelli Scott Kelley’s Narrative Art seminar) to begin brainstorming for the collaborative project.
Students considered the function of time capsules and looked at examples ranging from The Golden Record to a time capsule buried on MIT’s campus, to contemporary artists who are making archives or time capsules that take many different visual forms, Thompson said. “The students suggested a range of possibilities, from something that is buried in the ground to a sculptural sarcophagus that would exist above ground, to a series of books that could be kept in the Special Collections Library and kept from view until twenty years from now,” she said. “As the conversations among those students has continued, it seems like the project might now take the form of a diorama of sorts. The goal is to have the project completed by the end of the summer!”
Weems also did one-on-one studio visits with a number of MFA students to connect more directly with students’ individual work and provide creative feedback, a rare opportunity for studio arts students.
“It has been eye-opening for our students to have interacted with Carrie Mae Weems over the past year,” Thompson said. “Undergraduate students who are at a critical, formative stage and graduate students who are embarking on careers of their own have all benefitted from working alongside such a well-known artist who works in a variety of mediums.”
MFA photography candidate Dason Pettit said working with a photographer as esteemed and renowned as Carrie Mae Weems was inspiring.
It has been informative for students to participate in a collaborative project as a way of engaging creative thinking, problem-solving, and compromise. “We are all excited to see these initial conversations and brainstorming sessions translate into a special, visual capsule of this moment in time—one that can also affect those who might open and experience it twenty years from now,” Thompson said. “Based on the ideas put forth by students, the project will have much to reveal about LSU, Louisiana, national politics, the environment, and global issues in 2018.”
Weems is the Nadine Carter Russell Chair and a Reilly Visiting Artist; the Reilly Visiting Artist Fund aims to bring artists of different disciplines to work with students at the LSU School of Art. “The LSU Museum of Art and the LSU School of Art will raise both of their visibilities in the larger community, outside of LSU, through hosting this internationally known artist, Carrie Mae Weems. She is a pioneer,” said Winifred Reilly, who established the Reilly Visiting Artist Fund with her husband, Kevin.
Weems gave a public lecture at the College of Art & Design on April 11, 2018. She spoke about what it means to be an artist, the act of appropriation in the context of creativity in the visual arts, and how to create in a conscious, impactful way. “The world is simply yours,” she told the room of LSU arts students. “The visual world belongs to you.”
She posed the question: “How do I intervene in the moment in which I live, impact it in a critical way?” Weems challenged the student artists to live consciously, and stated that she believes she will see many of them go on to have interesting careers.
The LSU Museum of Art’s annual collaborative exhibition with the LSU School of Art will feature two of Weems’ recent photographic and video series, “All the Boys” and “The Usual Suspects,” on display until Oct. 14, 2018. Images from these series confront viewers with stereotypes in the deaths of black men and women at the hands of police and judicial inaction. An excerpt from her “Louisiana Project” will welcome museum visitors — “While sitting upon the ruins of your remains, I pondered the course of history” — to signal the critical lens of identity, power, gender, race and class that Weems’ work will inspire. Selected works from Weems’ series will appear in the museum’s permanent collection.
About the Nadine Carter Russell Chair
The chair was created in 1998 by Paula G. Manship and named for her niece, a 1967 graduate of the College of Art & Design. The Nadine Carter Russell Chair enables the college to bring a prominent artist, designer or scholar to campus annually. The rotating chair provides outstanding opportunities for all four disciplines within the college and the community through leading courses and public lectures, and allows the college to meet a variety of curriculum needs.
BLA Student Anjelica Sifuentes Received Second Tipton Travel Award for Capstone Project
Anjelica Sifuentes, BLA 2018 candidate, won the 2017 Tipton Travel Award to support her travel for her Capstone research project “Redefining Our Borderlands.” The project investigates design concepts for alternative measures of border security between Mexico and the United States, informed by a social, cultural, and historical perspective. For the project Anjelica traveled to the border between the United States and Mexico, a crossing point in Eagle Pass, Texas – an area referred to as “the borderlands.”
Anjelica visited the Eagle Pass, Texas – Piedras Negras, Coahuila, Mexico site multiple times for her research. “Overall my trip experiences were extremely beneficial to my understanding of the circulation and environment of the U.S.-Mexico border,” she said.
“When Anjelica said she wanted to pursue this research topic, I said, ‘do it!’” said Bruce Sharky, professor of landscape architecture. “She is a dedicated student, and not afraid to take on big challenges. She takes into account the historical and cultural context of a very complex, enormous issue, and has come up with an alternative that makes sense for the community.”
The Wall: A False Sense of Security
The borderlands have been defined by the surrounding regional heritage and a barrier acts as an administrative division between the cultures of the United States and Mexico, according to her project. A wall on the U.S.-Mexico border is currently proposed by the U.S. executive government for security purposes. “However, it is serving as a statement that doesn’t represent what America aims to be,” Anjelica stated.
The aim of her research is to design a different border typology that is ethically, environmentally, and culturally responsible, “given the sensitivities of the issues today.” Anjelica explored a range of wall alternatives and improvements, taking into consideration the varying landscape conditions and anticipating design constraints due to the site’s physical limitations.
Anjelica’s research also took into account the contextual information that will inform the design of the border proposal, such as the cultural and societal evolution of border communities, historical context, urbanization growth trends, geographic makeup, economic trade, and migration. Her proposal cited precedent examples and incorporates security measures and cost analysis. Trips to visit the site firsthand allowed her to synthesize all these aspects, while also incorporating real-life considerations into her final project.
Why is This Important?
The border area is a unique ecosystem and community with cultural significance that deserves attention and appreciation, Anjelica stated. “There is a disconnect between American perception of what illegal immigration is versus what the realities of the issues are,” she said.
Her project explores the circulation and accessibility of the border and how that ultimately impacts the quality of life of both cities. “Putting myself in the position of someone who has to cross the border every day highlighted for me the importance of international fluidity for both societies.”
The trip experience produced interesting findings: while exploring the urban areas on either side of the border, she found a stark contrast between the evidence of economic growth in Mexico versus on the United States side, suggesting that the existence of the physical border barrier hinders socioeconomic communication between the two sides. Understanding the issues that face the communities along the U.S. border is important for urban planning and economic development.
“There is a long history of this divided singular culture of the cities established along the river, what is today the U.S.-Mexico border,” Professor Sharky explained. “What was once one interactive community was essentially split down the middle when the border was created.”
Kevin Risk, associate professor of landscape architecture, is the Capstone studio instructor and worked with Anjelica to develop the project. “Her research has taken on a more personal relevance over the course of the semester,” he said. “Instead of proposing alternative border wall typologies (where her research started), her project has become more about recognizing the daily and recurring cultural exchanges that have traditionally occurred between the border cities of Eagle Pass and Piedras Negras, Mexico, to which her family has historic ties, and designing more culturally rich, spatially sensitive and user-friendly approaches to the crossing experience. The end goal is to recognize that these cities share a common heritage, environment and ecology, and many resources, and that through thoughtful design and planning, borders can be places of unification rather than of divide.”
A Personal Connection
Anjelica has “lived it;” she understands all the particular cultural issues associated with the border region, Sharky said.
“The paternal side of my family is from, and still lives, in Eagle Pass so I thought I had a good grasp on what to expect returning and spending time crossing the international bridge,” Anjelica said. “With the objective to gain insight for my Capstone project, I was surprised at how different I had begun to perceive the area. Since I had been across this specific border before, I thought that my memories of crossing would be semi consistent with how I felt this time. But that wasn’t the case at all – this time I was in awe of how different each border city actually is.”
There are numerous services and amenities that the border towns share, and Anjelica had the chance to experience them firsthand as she walked across the international bridge and explored the area. “Looking across the Rio Grande from Piedras Negras really put my thoughts into perspective,” she said. “I stood in a Mexican city full of vibrant activity, while in comparison on the other side, the United States showcased its common neglect of border towns. It was really apparent that Piedras Negras takes better care and seems more proud of their city, unlike Eagle Pass, which has been pretty stagnant since I’ve known the area. The Mexican city has developed noticeably quicker than the U.S. city – I wasn’t expecting such a drastic contrast.”
The knowledge that she gained from her research trips shaped the direction that her project has taken, Anjelica said. “I am extremely grateful for the opportunity from Tipton Associates, which helped provide those experiences.”
Tipton Travel Award
Anjelica was awarded $1,750 to use for travel by the spring 2018 semester. Her application was selected from numerous submissions due to her innovative approach to her research project. She is the second student to win this annual award.
Tipton Associates is a Baton Rouge based architecture, interiors, and planning firm with a 130-year history of enhancing the quality of life for individuals and communities through its emphasis on excellent design.
“The vision for the travel award was to honor our tradition of interdisciplinary work,” said Lori Prochaska, AIA, senior associate and architect, Tipton Associates. “It is in this spirit we implore students from all of the disciplines in the LSU College of Art & Design to submit an application. Since its inception, we have been inspired by the exceptional students taking advantage of this opportunity and are grateful to be able to afford it to them.”
Led by LSU School of Architecture alumnus Ken Tipton, BArch 1981, the firm has an interdisciplinary focus; projects are about partnerships and working together with smart people to implement a shared vision. The 30 people in the Baton Rouge office approach assignments in collaborative, interdisciplinary teams that include specialists in architecture, interior design, urban planning, and landscape architecture.
“This project was a chance for Anjelica to give back to the community,” Sharky said.
Grad Walk 2018
The 2018 Spring Art Grad Walk was Friday, April 20, in the Studio Arts Building. MFA students showed their work to the public, including printmaking, photography, painting and drawing, graphic design, sculpture, digital art, and more.