Spring Arts Preview 2019

arts preview SPRING 2019

THE CHRONICLE

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W E D N E S D AY, J A N U A R Y 1 6 , 2 0 1 9

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The Chronicle

campus arts

‘Pop América’ exhibit brings hemispheric view of pop art to the Nasher

By Joel Kohen Staff Writer

For the first time, an exhibition seeks to highlight the way artists from across the American continent have grappled with “pop art” — a term that reflects both the noun “popular” as well as the verb “to pop.”

Curated by Duke professor Esther Gabara, “Pop América, 1965-1975” enriches the common notion of pop art by integrating the work of Latin American, U.S. Latino and Chicano artist into the North Americandominated canon. The traveling exhibition opened Oct. 4 in San Antonio, Texas, at the McNay Art Museum and will be on display at the Nasher Museum of Art from Feb. 21 to July 21 before making its final stop at Northwestern University’s Block Museum.

“The very first time I started to think about pop art beyond the Anglophone world that has long dominated its representation in art history and museum exhibitions was back around 2001, when I was looking at Cuban posters from the 1960s,” Gabara wrote in an email.

She was fascinated by the influence that the visual language of consumer culture exerted even on artists working to consolidate the newly established Socialist government.

Several years later, when she was co-director of the Global Brazil Lab at the Franklin Humanities Center, she began developing the exhibition. Apart from the academic innovation the hemispheric vision promises, Gabara and her associates explicitly wished to reach a broad audience, which is why as much of it — the catalog, wall texts and many programs — is designed to be bilingual.

Although many classics of pop art, such as Andy Warhol’s “Campbell Soup Cans” (1962)

or Roy Lichtenstein’s “Crying Girl” (1964) have long achieved widespread fame and now adorn commercial merchandise, most of their Latin American and Chicano counterparts have remained unknown to modern audiences.

“If Andy Warhol is best known for placing his version of Brillo boxes in art galleries, we see Colombian artist Antonio Caro transforming the Coca-Cola logo into the name of his country,” Gabara wrote. “Both artists are examining the impact of consumer culture on the contemporary art object, on the social spaces of art making and the circulation of images.”

The title “Pop América” is taken from a 1968 print by Hugo Rivera Scott, whose work features prominently in the exhibition alongside that of Judith Baca, Luis Cruz Azaceta, Jorge de la Vega and others.

Gabara wrote that she hoped the exhibit would “expand the idea of América and its ideals of freedom and expression.”

Indispensable to the exhibition’s development were both a research team as well as several undergraduate and graduate courses at Duke over the last few years taught by Gabara herself as well as by Natalia de Rose and William Fick. In the current spring semester, students can enroll in ARTHIST390 “Pop América Politics, History,” which will work closely with the pieces on display.

Imari Genias, a student who took that same class just a year ago, will soon serve as a guide at the Nasher.

“The Pop América exhibit is important to me because it made me reconsider different aspects of American culture,” Genias wrote in an email. The question of what it means to be an American — in the United States or in terms

of North and South America — stuck with her long after the course ended.

“When Professor Gabara said that we should reach out if we want to be involved when the exhibit opens at the Nasher, I jumped at the opportunity,” she said.

Praise for the exhibition has been ample, as it has been awarded the first ever Sotheby’s Prize together with the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) Chicago and its exhibition “Many Tongues: Art, Language, and Revolution in the Middle East and South Asia.”

“This exhibition will rewrite our understanding of pop art,” said Allan Schwartzman, executive vice president of Sotheby’s to the Sotheby’s Museum Network.

“It shows how it was utilized in Latin America in a way that was more precise and intentional than in some other parts of the world.”

Blending the vibrant colors of advertisements with the politically tumultuous time of the late ‘60s and early ‘70s, the pieces on display promise a groundbreaking look at a style much more global than often presumed.

Molly Boarati, the coordinating curator at the Nasher, did most of the logistical work in bringing the collection to Durham. A wide range of educational programs will be offered in conjunction with the exhibition, including an opening curator talk by Professor Gabara Feb. 21 and a free screening of “Olimpiada en México” Feb. 28.

Photo Courtesy of Nasher Museum of Art Antonio Caro’s “Colombia Coca-Cola” (1976) will be featured in this semester “Pop América” exhibit.

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WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 16, 2019 | 3

With upcoming residency, Manual Cinema brings puppetry to campus

By Nina Wilder Design Editor

This spring, the Chicago-based collective Manual Cinema is bringing an art form to campus that tends to be overlooked with regard to live performance: puppetry.

Be prepared, however, to cast aside any preconceived notions you might have about the medium, because Manual Cinema is far from the likes of “Avenue Q” or any of its puppet-related contemporaries. Instead, the group of performers, video producers and musicians that comprise Manual Cinema create a live product that is equal parts cinema, puppetry, theatre and music. Out of that combination arises an experience that can only be described as both enigmatic and beautifully imaginative.

Sarah Fornace, a director, puppeteer, choreographer and narrative designer for Manual Cinema, recalled that it all began in 2010 with an overhead projector — the sort of thing a thirdgrade teacher would use alongside worn transparencies and vis-à-vis markers.

She was working at Redmoon Theater, a formerly Chicago-based puppetry company, with her friend Julia Miller, who is now a director, puppeteer and puppet designer at Manual Cinema.

“Julia found an overhead projector in her landlord’s garage, and she was like, ‘I want to make a show that’s a spiritual journey of a young woman with this overhead projector,’” Fornace said.

Fornace, though intrigued, was unable to work on the project at the time, so she told Miller to contact to her partner Drew Dir, a writer, director and illustrator.

Miller also reached out to Kyle Vegter and Ben Kauffman, whom she knew as experimental musicians in the Chicago indie scene, and asked to sample some of their music for the budding puppet show. Vegter and Kauffman countered Miller’s request with something even better: Equipped with their knowledge of sound design and composition, they offered to compose an entire live score for the production.

And with that, Manual Cinema was

born. The group took their show, titled “Lula Del Ray,” wherever they were allowed to show up — from bars to zine fests — and performed it as widely as possible. As their momentum increased and the group’s popularity blossomed, the quintet went back to the drawing board and crafted an entirely new show — a piece they named “Ada|Ava,” which will also be the first of Manual Cinema’s two performances on campus.

“Drew had this idea for a show that’s about death and these two twin sisters — it’s kind of Hitchcock inspired, like ‘Vertigo’ and some of his psychological thrillers,” Fornace said. “We used to live in the first story of a building in Chicago and we did it in our window on Halloween and put the speakers for the instruments in the bushes. People who were walking to go to the bars would stop and see the show.”

Those two shows, which Fornace cites as the group’s most widely performed pieces, proved to be the start of a wildly successful career for Manual Cinema. To date, they’ve produced over 20 different live performances and films, an immensely difficult feat when considering the amount of skill, effort and time required to execute their shows.

“We use overhead projectors, and we’ll put three or four of them all on one table and focused at a screen,” Fornace said. “We use printed acetate so we can get the colors and wallpapers for the background, and most of the solid objects or characters are made out of paper and appear in silhouettes. We also use our own shadows — when it’s a medium shot, it’s usually us in a costume playing a character, and when we cut to close-up that would be a paper puppet head.”

Fornace was also well-aware of her use of filmmaking lingo when talking about the technical aspects of Manual Cinema’s shows, and how that contributes even further to the idea that the company is creating films in their most bareboned, authentic form.

“The idea is we use cinematic language and the language of editing,” Fornace said. “Everything is composed of far shots, close-up shots [and] medium

shots, and we use pieces of paper to open and close the light. We can do dissolves, cuts, rack focuses, even depth of field tricks with the overhead projectors.”

But whereas films are presented without any acknowledgements of their makers, Manual Cinema reminds the audience that the endlessly impassioned and hard-working individuals behind the scenes are an integral part of the theatrical and cinematic experience, too.

“Our shows have a giant screen above [the puppeteering], and you can just watch that screen and watch it like it’s a movie,” Fornace said. “But you can also look down and see the humans running around and grabbing hundreds of pieces of paper, playing instruments …

the kind of mess [required] to make that clean image is present, so it makes the experience hopefully more strange and more live and more human, all around.”

It’s perhaps one of the most alluring aspects of a Manual Cinema performance: Not only are you are presented with a methodically written and performed puppet show, but you are also privy to an entirely different performance, composed of musicians, puppeteers, actors and artists working together within the same space and time.

“Media is designed to be so frictionless,” Fornace said. “You’re supposed to forget that it’s been designed to have some kind of impact on you, by some person out in the world. We’re trying to foreground that.”

Special to The Chronicle Manual Cinema’s Duke Performance residency includes performances of “Ada/Ava” from Feb. 5 to Feb. 9.

ON THE COVER 2

arts preview SPRING 2019

THE CHRONICLE

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4 JURASSIC PARK 5 5

6

7

(Steven Spielberg, 1993, 127 min, USA, English, Color, DCP)

The prehistoric and the state-of-the-art meet in Spielberg’s gamechanging adaptation of Michael Crichton’s novel, which lays its scene on a Costa Rican island newly populated with regenerated dinos.

The CGI was all anyone could talk about when it was released, but today you may notice the extensive use of sophisticated analog effects, and of course the peerless ensemble cast including Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, Newman from Seinfeld, and the “six-foot turkey” kid—the human factor that makes Jurassic Park truly timeless.

“The enthralling man-vs.-nature parable based on the late Michael Crichton's best-selling novel hasn't aged one bit.”

-- Michael O’Sullivan, Washington Post -- 1994 Academy Award winner for Best Visual Effects, Best Sound, and Best Sound Effects Editing!

6

SATURDAY

JAN 19 HT

2:00 PM

Rubenstein Arts Center Film Theater

music.duke.edu

Free Screening!

Sponsored by the Program in the Arts of the Moving Image (AMI).

http://ami.duke.edu/screensociety |

@DukeAMI |

movingimageDuke

1. RUBENSTEIN ARTS CENTER: Poster by Carlos Hernandez, Burning Bones Press 2018 2. MFA | EDA 2019 THESIS EXHIBITION: Katie King (’18) A Tangle of Branches.

3. DUKE PERFORMANCES: Camille A. Brown & Dancers, Black Girl: Linguistic Play, January 29-February 2, February 26March 2.

4. THEATER: Molly Albright producer and actor in the surereal comedy Fuddy Meers 5. SCREEN/SOCIETY: Jurassic Park (1993) Weekend Matinee presented Saturday, January 19 at the Rebenstein Arts center, Film Theatre.

6. MUSIC: Celloist Caroline Stinson (faculty recital January 26)

Classes h Concerts h Opportunities to Perform

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This year at the Rubenstein: Artist talks, classes and a coffee cart

By Eva Hong Features Editor

Bre Bradham | Contributing Photographer The Rubenstein Arts Center will celebrate its first birthday Feb. 2, and has enjoyed a year of curated arts events and programming.

Hugo Rivera-Scott, Pop América (detail), 1968. Collage on cardboard, 30 x 21.5 inches (76.5 x 54.5 cm). Courtesy of the artist. © Hugo Rivera-Scott. Photo by Jorge Brantmayer.

Pop América, 1965 – 1975 is co-organized by the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, and the McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, Texas. The exhibition is guest curated by Esther Gabara, E. Blake Byrne Associate Professor of Romance Studies and associate professor of Art, Art History & Visual Studies at Duke University.

Pop América, 1965 – 1975 is a recipient of the inaugural Sotheby’s Prize and is supported by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. Additional thanks to the Institute for Studies on Latin American Art (ISLAA) and to its President and Founder, Ariel Aisiks. This project is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts. At the Nasher Museum, this exhibition is made possible by the Nancy A. Nasher and David J. Haemisegger Family Fund for Exhibitions; Mary Duke Biddle Foundation; Fox Family Foundation; Ann Chanler and Andrew Scheman; Katie Thorpe Kerr and Terrance I. R. Kerr; Lisa Lowenthal Pruzan and Jonathan Pruzan; Kelly Braddy Van Winkle and Lance Van Winkle; Parker & Otis; and Karen M. Rabenau and David H. Harpole, MD. Support from Duke University is provided by the Vice Provost for the Arts; the Global Brazil Lab and the John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute; the Dean of the Humanities; the Departments of Romance Studies and Art, Art History & Visual Studies; the Duke Brazil Initiative; the Office of the Provost; and the Office of Global Affairs.

Admission is always free for Duke students.

The Rubenstein Arts Center opened one year ago, and it has introduced a number of new programs since then.

In October 2015, financier and Duke alumnus David M. Rubenstein, Trinity ‘70, endowed the University with $25 million to create a center for the arts on campus. Its opening party in February 2018 attracted over 3,000 attendees, but the new initiatives have not stopped there.

“The true purpose of the building is to be a catalyst for creativity and to help grow artistic innovations at Duke, and part of that is through the collaborative nature of the space,” said arts communications specialist Katy Clune.

The space is home to the dance and arts of the moving image programs, as well as some initiatives run by duARTS and the CoLab. From hosting classes, serving as a workspace for campus and community artists to bringing like-minded people together and promoting arts at Duke, the Rubenstein Arts Center has become a prominent feature of Duke’s artistic community.

“What I like to really sum up the Ruby to people is that first and foremost, it’s a building that really helps showcase the creative process,” Clune said. “You can get that feeling from driving by or being in the space – how open it is and how many studios are visible from the outside.”

Indeed, the Rubenstein is home to student dance shows, theatre performances and avant-garde 16-mm film. But students are also seen sweating hard on the dance floor, rehearsing a musical scene again and again and bending over their film strip to study every frame. However, aside from providing classes and workspaces, the Ruby also hosts many events to encourage interactions between students and local artists, as fostering an artistic community is one of the Ruby’s main goals.

One of its persistent efforts to achieve the goal is the series of Ruby Fridays, which are lunch break conversations with community artists to learn about their work and the latest trends in the professional arts world. This semester, featured artists will include award-winning choreographer Stefanie Batten Bland, renowned Durham-based puppeteer Tarish “Jeghetto” Pipkins and visual artist and Duke alumna Rebecca Kuzemchak.

The Rubenstein also started hosting Ruby Tuesdays, which offered free coffee and pastries outside the Ruby Lounge every Tuesday afternoon. After giving out over 1,800 cups of coffee, the Rubenstein staff decided to replace Ruby Tuesdays with a Beyu Blue coffee cart in the lobby serving caffeine and some snacks, starting Feb. 2. The Rubenstein will also celebrate its first birthday that day with cake, art activities and student performances.

Clean hopes the cart will encourage more students to spend time at the Rubenstein.

“I think students are in there for classes a lot of the time, but if you have a break in your day and you needed to kill two hours, there wasn’t as strong of an argument to stay at the Ruby,” she said. “But now with coffee and snacks and hopefully more of a community vibe, I hope that students will understand that it’s their space to hang out and linger in.”

The Rubenstein’s first year featured a wide variety of artistic events, including the Cornered exhibition, a screening of Nathaniel Dorsky’s films, two Hoof ‘n’ Horn shows, DEMAN Weekend and many other events and programs. But the Rubenstein has also hosted events promoting the union of art and STEM, including the Art + Tech Fair and “The Art of a Scientist” exhibition.

For junior Madeline Go, the Rubenstein helps bring together her passions. “[It] provides me with a space to study but also to feel like that Duke is putting in more effort of bringing the arts into college life,” she said. “For me, as someone who is both interested in the science and art…the art side of me is really happy because I’d love to find a balance between the two.

With places like the Ruby being established, Duke is helping that to be a reality.”

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WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 16, 2019 | 5

Hoof ‘n’ Horn tackles the trials of adolescence in ‘Spring Awakening’

By Sydny Long Student Life Editor

For those in low spirits due to the wintry weather and the renewed drudgery of classwork, fear not — Duke’s own Hoof n’ Horn is making spring come early this year.

The latest production from the studentrun theater company, “Spring Awakening,” is both timely and timeless, set in 19th-century Germany and dealing with the perennial struggle of transitioning from adolescence to adulthood. Although its exploration of heavy themes can be brutally unflinching, the show contains just enough levity in its puckish dialogue and rocking score to ever be crushed by the gravity of its own material. It is, as firstyear Eli Kline describes, “cathartic”.

“There’s a lot of different perspectives in the show, so there’s not one message to convey,” said Kline, who will be portraying Mortiz Stiefel in his second role as a member of Hoof n’ Horn.

“I hope everyone gains something from it. The issues covered are so wide and vast, I think everyone will be able to get something mentally, personally or spiritually out of it.”

The show’s director, senior Tori Trimm, has similar hopes for what audiences might glean from the musical.

“There are multiple levels to this show,” Trimm said. “There’re lots of timely issues like sexual assault and mental health, but on a broader level, it’s about what happens when communication breaks down … It’s so important to be honest and reach out to people, I feel like that’s something everyone should come away with.”

This is Trimm’s first time in the director’s chair, having previously starred in past Hoof n’ Horn productions such as last fall’s “The Addams Family” and last year’s “Chicago.” She initially had her doubts about transitioning

from the stage to behind the scenes, but now enjoys being behind the scenes.

“It’s been awesome,” Trimm said, beaming. “I was worried I’d want to be onstage, but it’s just as fulfilling watching creativity and talent expand, and being able to guide that process. This show has been so collaborative, it’s really a two-way street … it’s just so exciting and new.”

Senior and music director Julia Nicholas was equally enthusiastic about the experience of developing the production.

“It’s been a really amazing experience,” she said. “This is my first Hoof n’ Horn production, so I finally get to see how much work goes into the show and how that brings it to life. I love getting to work with the whole production team and the cast, who are all so talented …

It’s a beautiful show.”

Some might be surprised to find that Hoof n’ Horn is returning to the Sheafer Lab Theater — a black box space — for “Spring Awakening” after performing their last two productions on the larger stages of the Rubenstein Arts Center. Unlike the comparatively more theatrical musicals on their roster, “Spring Awakening” is an intimate show with a smaller cast that benefits from the close quarters of Sheafer and the close relationships fostered by the reduced scale of production.

“This show has been a lot of fun and very challenging,” Kline said. “We have a smaller cast, a smaller theater … But it’s just made us form closer relationships. We really get to bond.”

Trimm echoed his remarks. “It’s been really lovely having a small cast and building connections with everyone. I feel like I can give everyone the attention they need.”

That optimism and dedication can be found in every cast and crew member present. Senior Rebekah Wellons and junior Tim Clayton, who are portraying the show’s adult characters, were all smiles as they stepped offstage after running a scene together.

Charles York | Special Projects Photography Editor Hoof ‘n’ Horn’s winter musical “Spring Awakening” runs from Jan. 24 to Feb. 3 in Sheafer Lab Theater.

“It’s going very well,” Clayton said. “It’s a unique challenge playing these distinct characters, but it’s definitely worth it.”

Wellons agreed, elaborating on just how much working on this particular show has meant to her. “It’s very special to do this my senior year. I loved ‘Spring Awakening’ when I was an angsty teen like the characters and now to be doing it from an adult perspective is so amazing.”

For those unfamiliar with the show and its contents, “Spring Awakening” might seem like an odd choice for Hoof n’ Horn’s more wellknown roster of performances. Its anachronistic style and uncomfortable subject matter — including, but not limited to, suicide, mental abuse and lots of sex — aren’t exactly audience-

friendly. However, the show’s enduring themes and infectious songs wedded with the dazzling talent found at every level of Hoof n’ Horn is bound to make for a memorable production that will leave audiences talking.

As Nicholas so succinctly put it: “People will definitely walk away feeling something.”

“Spring Awakening” will run in the Sheafer Lab Theater from Jan. 24 to Feb. 3 with performances on Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. and a Sunday matinee at 2 p.m. both weeks. There will be a talk-back after the matinee.

Content warning: Spring Awakening involves heavy themes including sexual assault, abuse, and suicide, as well as partial nudity. The show is not recommended for young audiences.

6 | WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 16, 2019

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can’t miss

events

CENTER FOR DOCUMENTARY STUDIES

22nd Annual Full Frame Documentary Film Festival

Thursday - Sunday, April 4 - 7, 2019 Location: Durham Convention Center

PHOTO BY ALEC HIMWICH

The Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, a CDS program, is one of the world’s premiere showcases for nonfiction cinema. Renowned for its film curation, support for artists, and vibrant atmosphere, Full Frame draws an international mix of 10,000-plus attendees to Durham every spring. Over four days, the Academy Award®–qualifying festival screens close to a hundred films, hosts panels and parties, and fosters community among filmmakers, industry professionals, and audience members. The 22nd annual festival will take place in Durham April 4–7, 2019. Full Frame fulfills its mission year-round. Free film screenings throughout the Triangle region, as well as educational initiatives—a Youth Screening for students and educators, a Teach the Teachers documentary literacy program, and a School of Doc filmmaking camp for high school students—increase access to documentary films and demonstrate their power.

MUSIC

Duke Wind Symphony: The Lord of the Rings

Saturday, March 2, 2019 | 8 pm Baldwin Auditorium Free admission Info at music.duke.edu

DANCE

ChoreoLab 2019

Friday, April 12 | 7:30 pm & Saturday, April 13 | 7:30 pm Reynolds Industries Theatre

Featuring guest conductor/composer Johan de Meij and saxophone soloist Henk van Twillert. Works include Johan de Meij’s Fellini and his Symphony No. 1, The Lord of the Rings.

ChoreoLab 2019 is the Duke Dance Program’s Spring concert featuring ballet, modern, African dance, jazz, and dance theater works by Duke faculty, advanced students, and alumni.

THEATER STUDIES

Fuddy Meers

Friday, March 29 | 8 pm Saturday, March 30 | 8:00 pm Sunday, March 31 | 2:00 pm Brody Theater, Branson Building Molly Albright, a senior pursuing distinction in acting, is producing Fuddy Meers, a surreal comedy by David Linday-Abaire, directed by Indy Arts Award winner JaMeeka Holloway-Burrell. A passion project for Albright, the script tells the story of an amnesiac, Claire (played by Albright), who awakens each morning with no recollection of—well—anything. Each morning, her husband gives her a quick rundown of who she is, and each night, she falls asleep, forgetting that day and every day prior. Today is just like every other day, until Claire is kidnapped by a limping, lisping convict who claims to be her brother. The audience is plunged into the chaotic kaleidoscope of Claire’s world, uncovering with Claire the dark secrets of her past. Climaxing in a cacophony of revelations, everything in Claire’s world is not what it appears to be. Is it ever?

SCREEN/SOCIETY

Film Screening: Burning

Rubenstein Arts Center, Film Theater Thursday, January 17 | 7pm & Friday, January 18 | 7pm: When an aspiring writer (Yoo Ah-in) becomes involved with a woman he knew from childhood (Jun Jong-seo) he agrees to apartment sit for her; but when she returns from Africa with a Gatsby-esque partner (Steven Yeun), his confusion and obsessions begin to mount, culminating in a stunning finale.

Info: ami.duke.edu/screensociety

The Chronicle

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WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 16, 2019 | 7

NASHER

Where We Find Ourselves: The Photographs of Hugh Mangum, 1897-1922 Exhibition Opening, Gallery Talk, Book Signing Friday, January 18 | 5 pm Nasher Museum of Art

Discover the extraordinary work of Hugh Mangum, a self-taught portrait photographer from Durham who lived more than a century ago. He was an itinerant portraitist with a temporary studio, working mostly in North Carolina and Virginia, during the segregationist laws of the Jim Crow era. Mangum had an open-door policy, and his clients were racially and economically diverse. Meet Alex Harris and Margaret Sartor, faculty at Duke’s Center for Documentary Studies, who will give an informal gallery talk about the exhibition they co-curated, Where We Find Ourselves: The Photographs of Hugh Mangum, 1897 – 1922. The accompanying book published by CDS Books and the University of North Carolina Press will be available for purchase. Reception to follow.

RUBENSTEIN ARTS CENTER

Ruby Fridays

Weekly, Fridays, 12 pm Rubenstein Arts Center Free; open to all

RUBENSTEIN ARTS CENTER

Ruby’s First Birthday!

Sat, Feb 2, 1 - 4pm Rubenstein Arts Center Free; open to all

Ruby Fridays, the casual art talk over free lunch in the Rubenstein Arts Center, kicks off for the spring on January 18 with conversation between award-winning choreographer Stefanie Batten Bland—at Duke to create a new dance on the American Ballet Theatre’s Studio Company—and The Rubenstein Arts Center opened a year the company’s artistic director, Sasha Radetsky. Mark ago this February, and duARTS, Duke’s your calendar, and drop in to be inspired during your umbrella organization for student arts groups, lunchbreak!

Music Fusion with Hilliard Greene & Stephanie Griffin (Jan 25); Tarish Pipkins (Jeghetto) ...and puppets is throwing a party. Drop into the Ruby for cake, (Feb 1); Art & Women’s Health with The Calla Campaign (Feb 8); Art Making After Duke with Rebecca Kuzemchak (T’13) art activities, student performances, and a (Feb 15); Painter William Paul Thomas (Feb 22); Art and Transgender Rights with Jess Dugan (Mar 1); Pop América with Black History Month art showcase in the Ruby Esther Gabara (Mar 22); Sculptor Stephen Hayes (Mar 29); Puppetry and Health with Marina Tsaplina (Apr 5); Art & the Lounge organized by duARTS. The new Beyu Environment with Cameron Oglesby (Apr 12); CDS Shortwave with Alexa Dilworth & Aaron Kutnick (Apr 19).

Blue in the Ruby coffee cart will open for the occasion—following this party, espresso and snacks will be on sale throughout the semester DUKE PERFORMANCES (Mon-Fri, 11am-2pm and 3-8pm).

Black Atlantic

March 2019 Motorco and Balwdin Auditorium In March 2018, Duke Performances brought some of the most musically fabled regions of the world to Durham with Black Atlantic, a weeklong festival in downtown Durham celebrating the music of Africa and the African diaspora.

Musicians from the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Venezuela, Mali, the Garifuna people of Honduras, and Spain took the stage at Motorco and the Carolina Theatre. “These six concerts,” wrote Duke professor Laurent Dubois, “remind us of common routes, of the ways Black Atlantic music has helped turn exile and exclusion into grounding and connection.” This season, Black Atlantic returns to Motorco (and adds one concert at Baldwin Auditorium) in search of more cultural connections and imaginative hybrids, with artists from South Africa, Congo, Uganda, Mali/Ivory Coast/France, Mauritania, Cuba, Niger, New York, and Brazil.

KATIE KING (‘18) A TANGLE OF BRANCHES

MFA | EDA

2019 Thesis Exhibition

Monday, March 18 - Monday, April 13 Location: Duke and Durham The Duke University Master of Fine Arts in Experimental and Documentary Arts program is proud to announce its spring thesis exhibition, MFA|EDA 2019.

Featuring site-specific projects by twelve MFA|EDA graduating students, the exhibition presents a tremendous range of work including presentations of film and video, installation, sculpture, photography, immersive arts, performance, sound, and multimedia over the course of four weeks across Duke’s campus and downtown Durham. On view March 18-April 13. More info at mfaeda.duke.edu.

Brought to you by Department of Art, Art History and Visual Studies, Center for Documentary Studies, Dance Program, Music Department, Master of Fine Arts in Experimental & Documentary Studies, Nasher Museum of Art, Screen/Society, Theater Studies with support from the Office of the Vice Provost of the Arts.

8 | WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 16, 2019

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The Chronicle

‘Where We Find Ourselves’ examines 19th century photography

By Kerry Rork Staff Writer

With the rapid spread of images through avenues like social media, it can be easy to take photography for granted today. Yet at the turn of the 20th century, this new medium of art was just coming into existence — and how it would be manipulated and utilized remained unclear.

The Nasher exhibit, “Where We Find Ourselves” captures the tumultuous time period during which Hugh Mangum photographed the South, a time overlayed with the question of racial segregation and gender discrimination. The title stresses what curators and editors Margaret Sartor and Alex Harris believe to be unique about Mangum’s photography: different people with different backgrounds all coming together in a single photo studio.

“Everyone understood that [Mangum] thought they were special, that their story was one he wanted to tell,” Harris said.

Hugh Mangum was born in 1877, the last year of Reconstruction, in the newly incorporated city of Durham, North Carolina. Despite his family’s business background, Mangum was enthralled with the art world from a young age. At 12 years old, he attended the Methodist Female Seminary, studying in their art department.

He then moved to explore the arts further at Salem College, an all-women’s university founded with a belief in education for all regardless of race or gender.

Even after his extensive artistic training in traditional mediums like paint and pastel, as soon as Mangum got his hands on a camera, he was infatuated.

From 1899 to 1922, Mangum

traveled throughout North Carolina and southwestern Virginia, working out of temporary spaces and making affordable pictures as a commercial photographer.

He would follow circuses and Vaudeville shows around, all while offering his services to a variety of people, from those born into slavery — like the grandmother of Civil Rights activist Pauli Murray — to Washington Duke himself.

The late 19th century, the high point of Mangum’s career, was shaped by the beginning of Jim Crow, and for most businesses, this separation of races was law. Regardless, Mangum’s photographs revealed a different side of the South, with many races, classes and genders sharing a single negative and even a waiting room.

As Sartor expressed, rather than focusing on race or gender, what mattered for the subjects of Mangum’s photographs was “how would you perform in front of the camera, yourself, your personality.”

For five decades, his photographs remained untouched, degrading in the Mangum family barn. Their survival depended on the work of community members who believed they were valuable, collecting them in boxes and storing them away in their homes. When Sartor and Harris first accessed the photos, the damage had covered some of the faces of Southern predecessors and historic figures. “[The damage] is a layer of meaning that coincides with our history,” Sartor said.

Mangum’s photographs depict a unique blend of lives, both shaped by labor and filled with prosperity. These moments Mangum would display were empowering, simply rare depictions

of laughter, joy and human life. And his impermanent studio allowed for a unique expression of these individuals, one without the traditional props other photographers utilized. It was about the relationship between two individuals, separated by a camera.

“Mangum simply stripped it down so that the picture became whatever the person brought to it,” Sartor said.

Although Harris and Sartor have worked on a number of projects together, this project meant introducing a previously unheard-of voice into the art world.

“It was an opportunity to work together and make sense of this body of work in our way,” Harris said.

They scoured through at least 10,000 negatives, searching for those that struck them. After narrowing this seemingly

endless pool of photos, the duo began to edit, enlarge and personalize Mangum’s body of work.

“It was special to respond to each picture on its own. We got to create this body of work out of Mangum’s, something so personal to us,” Harris said.

Ultimately, what Mangum provides is a window into the history of this country.

Today, in a time when most of the world takes photography for granted, a reminder of the past is essential.

“You can read a history book, but it is a whole ‘nother thing to look into the faces of the farmers and circus performers and families and just everyday people,” Sartor said.

“Where We Find Ourselves” will be on display in the incubator gallery at the Nasher from Jan. 19 to May 19.

Photo Courtesy of Nasher Museum of Art The Nasher’s “Where We Find Ourselves” displays the 19th century photographs of Hugh Magnum.

The Chronicle

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WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 16, 2019 | 9

CDS exhibit ‘One Hurricane Season’ individualizes climate change

By Alizeh Sheikh Interviews & Reviews Editor

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RUBY’S FIRST BIRTHDAY Photo Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons Tamika Galanis’ “One Hurricane Season” will be on display at the Center for Documentary Studies until Feb. 17.

Climate change is a topic that is at once impersonal and urgent. Although nearly every successive climate change report seems to pull the due date of impending calamity ever closer to the present, climate change coverage has refrained from politicizing the issue, often turning to a small handful of the big players, like national governments.

In “One Hurricane Season,” a Center for Documentary studies exhibition on display until Feb. 17, MFA/EDA alumna and native Bahamian Tamika Galanis aims to enrich and individualize the conversation on climate change by threading it through a summer spent with her grandmother in the Bahamas at the height of hurricane season.

In an essay for “Oxford American,” Galanis contextualizes her exhibition by synthesizing the sudden and large-scale destruction experienced in the wake of Hurricanes Irma and Maria with the rapid progression of dementia that afflicted her grandmother. As Atlantic “Small Island Developing States” (SIDS), including the Bahamas, look to the future, they see a fate of disappearance already experienced by their counterparts in the Pacific.

The preservation of Bahamian livelihood, humanity and culture shoulders an urgency that parallels Galanis’ sudden commitment to collect and retain the pieces of family history left behind by her grandmother. The future threat of dissolution faced by Bahamian people and culture is further overcast by the touristic presentation of the Bahamas as an island paradise, devoid of human contact. It is in the shadow of these dual threats that Galanis does her work, placing a multifaceted lens wholly on a people and culture that have never received one from the ubiquitous ad agencies and who merit such a lens sooner rather than later.

“This show — and the objective of my practice — is to document as much of the Bahamian experience as I can in a place that is in grave danger of disappearance,” Galanis said. “The people and the landscape are equally important: Bahamian vernacular is inclusive of language, culture, aesthetics, flora, fauna, etc. Every detail is important.”

“One Hurricane Season” is a change of pace from traditional photography, incorporating a range of multimedia aspects, including video, sound, photography and collage, into four separate installations that fit together in theme and artistic intent. The installations engage multiple senses — sight, sound and texture, along with movement — to create an experience that is at once immersive and intimate for the viewer, yet distinctly rooted in Galanis’ experiences as a native Bahamian. Galanis has a somewhat documentarian family history: Her grandfather was an avid photographer, as was her father, and they both diligently worked to document the

day-to-day life of their families with a care and fondness that is evident in Galanis’ own work.

Installations like “Into the Ether,” in which Galanis incorporates bits of Bahamian ecology like conch shells, mango leaves and poinciana bark with monoprints of her family, demonstrate the embeddedness of her own Bahamian family history in the country’s ecology.

“A Thousand Points of Light,” is a family video installation overlaid with a recording of Dominica prime minister Roosevelt Skerrit’s address to the U.N. General, in which he entreats the assembly for action against climate change. It shines a light on the environmental justice aspect of climate change by implying that it not only threatens the ecology of a place, but also the livelihood of the people incorporated into that very ecology.

“Although the people in [“A Thousand Points of Light”] are my family, they represent the people of the region as a whole,” Galanis said. “They remind us of what’s in danger of disappearance without climate intervention — the historical narrative as it pertains to Black bodies in the Caribbean — is one of erasure.

Everyday occurrences are eclipsed by the paradise narrative — these films are a reminder that we are real people living full lives and the stakes are high.”

Other installations, including a compilation of Bahamian visio-auditory clips in which the camera is depersonalized and omniscient, and a collection of photographs of lived-in or worn homes, pathways and garden gates, work together to present a viewpoint of the Bahamas that reaches far beyond its famed white, sandy beaches. By neatly placing the viewer within the experience of a native Bahamian, and by allowing one to vicariously view the quotidian landscape of a Bahamian, Galanis manages to compose an exhibit that is as intimate for its audience as it is for her.

“When I make work, I’m always striving to understand something a bit more — I’m an observer,” Galanis stated. “I venture to make images that mirror my experiences, just as I think or want others to experience them — as isolated slices of a whole: everyday occurrences that are often overlooked.”

Such a personal rendering of climate change is much needed break from typical media coverage of the topic. Even narratives of environmental justice, which, as a component of social justice, must often focus on marginalized peoples as groups. It serves to contextualize a discussion that is frequently abstracted and depersonalized, perhaps highlighting the potential of artists in a realm rarely attributed to them: science and public policy. When artists like Galanis bring to light the emotional impact of climate change and thereby implicate its urgency, their work is rendered in a new, and valuable, light.

Sat, Feb 2, 1–4pm duARTS celebrates with cake & creative activities.

WEEKLY ART TALKS & LUNCH (Most) Fridays, 12pm Jan 18: Ballet Jan 25: Music Fusion Feb 1: Jeghetto Puppets Feb 8: The Calla Campaign & more!

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WORKS FROM THE PHOTOGRAPHIC PORTFOLIO (ARTVIS 655) Exhibition on view through Jan 24

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10 | WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 16, 2019

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local arts

Blackspace and FTMF celebrate Durham’s black history in MLK day show

By Will Atkinson Culture Editor

On Feb. 16, 1960, Martin Luther King, Jr., visited Durham’s White Rock Baptist Church — one of five trips he would ultimately make to the city. The speech, delivered to a standing-room-only crowd of an estimated 1,200 people, came just days after four students had initiated a sit-in at Greensboro, N.C.’s Woolworth department store, in what would become one of the most influential protests of the civil rights movement.

Nearly 60 years after King’s visit, the legacy of the civil rights leader will be celebrated in the form of a concert at Motorco Music Hall Sunday, one day before the federal holiday commemorating his birthday. Organized by Durham organizations Blackspace and FTMF Talent, the show begins at 8 p.m. and features three local music groups.

Following the theme of “Past:Present:Future,” the night aims to look back at King’s legacy, celebrate the vibrant culture of Durham today and look forward to the city’s future.

For Pierce Freelon, the founder of Blackspace, and Will Darity, the director of FTMF Talent — which stands for “Forging the Musical Future” and represents a number of local musicians — the show began as a one-of-a-kind collaboration between the two organizations. The night highlights two generations of musical talent; While FTMF groups like ThejonDoe and Africa Unplugged (in which Darity is the guitarist) have tended to resonate with older crowds, Blackspace has made as its central mission the development of creativity and technical skills among youth.

“Collaborations like these are great opportunities for us to share what these kids are creating with the world,” Freelon said. “And so we’re looking forward to celebrating the legacy

of Dr. King with giving these kids a platform.”

Blackspace, which began in Chapel Hill and opened a Durham location after a successful Kickstarter campaign in 2016, trains students in everything from coding and cryptocurrency to beatmaking and music production. In the years since its establishment, the organization has only grown thanks to “word-of-mouth and local grassroots support,” according to Freelon, and now offers regular “Wokeshops” on a variety of technical and musical topics. Central to Blackspace’s vision is the concept of Afrofuturism, and it seeks to create a safe space for youth of color to learn and create. The Afronauts, for example, are a hip-hop group whose beats and lyrics are written and performed entirely by students at the center — and who just released a mixtape, “Revenge of the Afronauts.”

To Freelon, Blackspace marks a continuation of Durham’s legacy of black arts and entrepreneurship, a history that spans to before King’s time. Black Wall Street and cultural sites like the now-closed The Know Bookstore on Fayetteville Street once acted as havens of black culture in the city, but new organizations have risen to carry on their legacy.

“It’s our obligation as the next generation to carry the torch,” Freelon said, emphasizing that Durham has always acted as “fertile soil” for art, long before its economic revitalization in the 21st century.

“There’s nothing new about this moment. Durham has always been this way. And so we’re lucky to have come up in an area with such a wealth of resources.”

One institution, in particular, stood out as an important incubator of talent for Freelon and Darity: Durham School of the Arts, from which both graduated (when it was still known as the Durham Magnet Center). Between many of the students at Blackspace and the alumni who would go on to form some of the bands represented by FTMF, the high school has proven to be an essential feature

of Durham’s local music scene. As a mouthpiece for creative youth — and as a representation of the “future” represented by “Past:Present:Future” — it was clear that Durham School of the Arts, along with the rise of Blackspace, has been indispensable.

“I can’t stress enough how important it is that you’ve got young people involved in the conversation. That’s one of the big changes that has come with Blackspace,” Darity said. “We’re gonna push these kids, but we’re also there to learn from them. Because the minute that we stop learning, our music is dead too. I know there’s something that they know that we don’t know.”

As nearly six decades have past since Martin Luther King, Jr.’s activism — and as the state of racial violence and civil rights remains in the balance even today — the role of the next generation of artists

Special to The Chronicle The Afronauts will perform alongside ThejonDoe and Africa Unplugged at Motorco Music Hall on Sunday.

GET CREATIVE IN EVERYTHING FROM CLAY TO CODING, NO EXPERIENCE NECESSARY! Schedule and registration at arts.duke.edu/dukecreate

and activists will only increase. The show at Motorco acknowledges King’s role and that of those who succeeded him, while looking ahead to what will follow. Especially in a city like Durham, whose black history was central to the movement King led, such a celebration could not be more fitting.

“We [in Durham] were at the epicenter of this massive, nationwide paradigm shift around power and race in the country,” Freelon said. “Part of celebrating King’s legacy is also celebrating North Carolina’s legacy and Durham’s legacy as important linchpins in the struggle for black freedom and civil rights in the country.”

“Afro-Soul - Past : Present: Future — A tribute to Dr. MLK Jr. at Motorco” starts at 8 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 20, at Motorco Music Hall. Tickets begin at $5 and are available at www.motorcomusic.com.

Offering 70+ free workshops this spring, including the new Arts of the Moving Image Filmcraft Series (video) and Innovation Co-Lab Roots Workshops (digital and tech skills).

The Chronicle

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WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 16, 2019 | 11

‘(In)visible Paradox’ exhibit at the Ruby focuses on reproductive health

By Selena Qian Features Editor

A new mixed-media exhibit at the Rubenstein hopes to use art and storytelling to raise awareness of solutions to major women’s health problems.

The Calla Campaign for Women’s Health was founded by Julia Agudogo, Pratt ‘17 and current first-year MD candidate at Duke Medical School.The campaign will open an exhibit Feb. 1 as a part of a larger movement that helps women explore themselves, find their voice and reduce shame in talking about their reproductive anatomy in order to improve health outcomes.

The current manager of the campaign, Libby Dotson, Trinity ‘18, came to the Calla Campaign after working on a different project in the Center for Global Women’s Health Technologies. When she joined the project in January 2018, they were working on research regarding the use of a new technology called the Callascope, which allows people with female anatomy to explore their cervix and view their reproductive organs using their cell phones. Researchers conducted in-depth interviews as well as a home study asking women about their experiences using the device.

“We were blown away by the responses we got from that and how empowered women felt by being able to look at their own anatomy in privacy without the invasion of the male gaze or the gynecologist,” Dotson said.

The Rubenstein exhibit will include testimonials from these interviews, as well as sculptures, visual art and medical imagery.

The in-depth interviews also revealed a dislike of the speculum, the current device used in pelvic exams to lift and separate the vaginal walls so that gynecologists can see inside. The Callascope could potentially replace the speculum, as it also performs the function of allowing a view of the internal reproductive organs.

The creation of this technology arose from a desire to improve accessibility to screenings for cervical cancer, a type of cancer that is easily cured if detected early yet currently still has a mortality rate of 52 percent worldwide, according to the World Health Organization. This

statistic indicates a lack of access to early screening and detection. Thus, the longterm goal of the campaign is to bring the Callascope to women in rural areas in low- and middle-income countries so that they can send images to doctors, who can then recommend a course of action if they detect a problem.

“We’re not trying to disqualify that [the speculum has] saved a lot of lives, but that we’re trying to make things more accessible,” Dotson said. “We’re trying to democratize health care.”

While still playing around with the name for the exhibit — ”(In)visible Gateway” or “(In)visible Organ” — Dotson said the goals for the exhibit are clear. It starts with cervical cancer awareness and also aims to help people “acknowledge the complexity of experiences that people with female anatomy have and for people to work through their discomfort talking about these topics.”

In interviewing participants in the home study, Dotson found their experiences with the Callascope were deeply personal. As she began speaking with artists commissioned for the exhibit, Dotson found that every person had their own unique and personal story about their experiences with reproductive health. To reflect this realization, the exhibit now includes both stories from the interviews and the personal experiences of the artists in the exhibition.

Sophomore Diane Lee, one of the artists involved with the exhibit, said that art centered around this topic can also be very easily misconstrued. Lee said that art collectors who have seen her paintings of female bodies ask about the reasons for eroticism in her paintings — but she denies the creation of eroticism; rather, the association of the female body with eroticism comes from the viewer.

Lee described a time when she was in high school in Korea and was told her work construed distributing “pornographic content” and could lead to a fine or jail time.

“My art teacher pulled me aside and apparently this is the case, you can’t have pubic hair, you can’t have certain things,” she said. “There were regulations, just about female bodies. Not about mens’.”

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Special to The Chronicle “(In)visible Paradox” will host its exhibit opening party at the Rubenstein Arts Center Feb. 1.

Lee found the experience degrading.

Even though she doesn’t intend to paint the female body for the entirety of her artistic career, Lee said she is doing so now because she is currently “in the safety of undergrad,” which allows her to paint the female body without repercussions. She was surprised to see how many people resonated with the expression behind her art. These types of misconstruals led the campaign to do away with artist statements in the exhibit, instead asking artists to prepare a creative writing piece that connects to and explains the emotions behind the piece.

“We wanted the women, and we also have trans artists as well, to actually tell people looking at the piece, ‘No, this was what was going on in my mind behind the piece.

Don’t project your ideas, don’t tell me what this piece means to me,’” Dotson said.

The exhibit has also been influenced by Walter Mignolo’s “decolonial aestheSis,” which asks why Western art forms have come to dominate art and questions the

validity of this perspective. Dotson said the point of “decolonial aestheSis” is to “shrink Western views of art down to size and allow the voices of others ... shrinking what we’ve been told art can and cannot be.”

This ties back to Lee’s experience with the differences in reception of male versus female reproductive anatomy. Lee and Dotson cite the example of the famous statue of David that is considered a masterpiece, yet a similar portrayal of a woman likely would not have the same response.

“The sentiment amongst women even regarding the Callascope is that they’re a little afraid,” Lee said. “They don’t want to see their cervix or vagina. We’re not proud of it.”

In the next few years, as the Callascope moves through the necessary testing for a new medical device, the campaign hopes to continue the exhibit and travel with it, using the device as an empowerment tool.

They aim to create a movement that will change the culture and stigma surrounding the discussion and visualization of female anatomy.

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STEW & THE NEGRO CAMILLE A. BROWN PROBLEM & DANCERS NOTES OF A BLACK GIRL: NATIVE SONG LINGUISTIC PLAY

12 | WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 16, 2019

UPCOMING 2019 SPRING SCHEDULE

THURSDAY NOVEMBER 15 | DUKE CHAPEL

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 14 THRU SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 17 | RUBENSTEIN ARTS CENTER

SUSANA RON BACA MILES I AM FARRUQUITO A MAN FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 1 & SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 2 | REYNOLDS INDUSTRIES THEATER

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 15 | CAROLINA THEATRE OF DURHAM

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 19 | PAGE AUDITORIUM

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 1 | BALDWIN AUDITORIUM

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