Quad: LSU College of Art & Design Magazine | Summer 2022 by LSUA+D

Summer 2022

LSU Art & Design Scholarship LSU Art & Design Researchers

Contents Features

& Design Scholarship

03 LSU Art

Researching Our Present, Past and Future

Sustaining Louisiana’s Cultural Heritage

I Made That Digital Fabrication with Nasrin Iravani, DDes Candidate

Field Notes Snapshots of Travels

Letter from the Dean

Alumni News and Updates

Did You Know? Creolization, with Irene Brisson

Class Notes

Equipped Sculpture with Cecelia Moseley

Four Minutes On How Fables Matter, with Darius Spieth

ON THE COVER PHOTO BY Austin Carbo Landscape architecture field trip to the West Coast.

This issue of the Quad is a digital publication with links to view more content online. Scan the QR codes throughout the magazine to read more stories, watch videos, & more!

EDITORIAL

ART DIRECTION - GDSO

EDITOR/WRITER

FACULTY ADVISORS

LSU PHOTOGRAPHERS

Elizabeth Mariotti

Courtney Barr

Kevin Duffy

Luisa Restrepo

Trai Thomas, DDes Candidate

CONTRIBUTORS Irene Brisson, Assistant Professor

DESIGN AND ILLUSTRATION

Darius Spieth, Professor

Samantha Smitley, BFA Candidate

Nasrin Iravani, DDes Candidate

Vicky Chen, BFA Candidate Ilai Wright, BFA Candidate

COPY EDITOR Jerry Lockaby

LSU College of Art & Design

Letter

from the

Dean

Dean Alkis Tsolakis (left) with LSU President William Tate IV. Photo by Kevin Duffy.

Scholarship is the very essence of School, as a place and a time dedicated to knowledge and truth. And “truth shall set you free” from the evils of ignorance. No freedom without scholarship and no scholarship without freedom! This issue of the Quad is dedicated to the scholars among us. It is their

scholarship and creative work that keeps the culture of the arts and design alive. It is their teaching nurtures a new generation of scholars and creative practitioners that will keep the culture of this land survive and thrive in the future. It is their scholarship and teaching that will continue to set us free. Scholarship first… and last.

Alkis Tsolakis, Dean

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& Design Scholarship LSU Art

When William Tate IV assumed the role of LSU President in summer 2021, he announced his vision for LSU’s future: scholarship first. Scholarship first means celebrating the research, academic achievements, and creative exploration of the LSU community. Read about some recent scholarship of LSU Art & Design faculty and students.

LSU College of Art & Design

Jeremiah Ariaz Professor of Photography

Ariaz’s artwork explores “how we live in place and how where we live affects who we are.” His recent series Talking Hard Traveling Battleground Blues features dystopian scenes from the American landscape. Made primarily in “battleground states,” in both public and private spaces, as well as at sites of protest and civic unrest, Battleground Blues evokes the anxiety felt by many at this critical juncture in our country’s history.

“The large-scale, color photographs attempt to visually balance politics with poetry—, and darkness with light, to create a portrait of our shared republic.” The work first debuted in Nashville, Tennessee, prior to the final presidential debate held near Zeitgeist Gallery. Photographs from the series were featured at the Baton Rouge Gallery in March 2022.

“In the run-up to the 2020 election and since, I have sought to visualize the democratic process with visits to election campaign and newspaper offices,” he said.

“I hope to better understand the forces that are reshaping conversations on race and bear witness to how a divisive political environment, COVID, and natural disasters are reshaping the country.” Jeremiah Ariaz at the Baton Rouge Gallery debut of his recent works. Photo by Trai Thomas.

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Traci Birch

PhD, Assistant Professor of Architecture and Managing Director of the LSU Coastal Sustainability Studio (CSS)

Birch works on large, interdisciplinary projects to help Louisiana communities protect themselves from flooding and environmental disasters. She was one of 20 scientists awarded the 2019 Early-Career Research Fellowship by the National Academies’ Gulf Research Program. In the wake of the 2016 floods—which devastated 21 south Louisiana parishes turned into federal disaster areas—the LSU Coastal Sustainability Studio invited Louisiana mayors and parish presidents to a workshop, part of the Louisiana Community Resilience Institute. The workshop was modeled on a national initiative called the Mayors’ Institute on City Design, supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, to help transform communities through holistic design. The Studio’s goal was to refine and advance Louisiana decision-makers’ ideas to solve flooding problems across the state while also improving and taking on pressing challenges.

Photo by LSU.

Birch engaged communities in Tangipahoa Parish to ensure their concerns and desires became part of the proposed design. Senior-level hydrologic design students took a watershed approach to the issues in Tangipahoa Parish. The team has been working closely with Dana Brown & Associates, a landscape architecture and planning firm based in New Orleans led by LSU landscape architecture alum Dana Brown.

LSU College of Art & Design

Haley Blakeman Assistant Professor of Landscape Architecture

Blakeman’s research team is developing a methodology for the Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority (CPRA) to identify receiving communities in Louisiana and prioritize needed investments to increase long-term community resilience. Climate change poses significant risks to both coastal and inland communities in Louisiana. CPRA’s current adaptation measures will protect our coast for the next 30 – 50 years, giving us time to proactively prepare for people leaving their homes due to environmental stressors. Federal funding is also shifting away from reactive disaster spending and toward research-supported, proactive investment in community resilience, which can be strategically directed to receiving communities now to be prepared for the displacement of hundreds of thousands of residents over the next 50 years.

“People migrating from the coast are looking for new communities that will not only embrace them, but also reduce their vulnerability to environmental, economic, and social risk.”

“By proactively planning for resettlement focused on reducing environmental, economic, and social vulnerability, public agencies, designers, and planners can make sure that communities are prepared to embrace and support coastal residents when they decide to move,” she said. “As CPRA expands its focus to include migration, this strategy will redefine how resilience funding is allocated while improving the quality of life for all residents.”

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Richard Doubleday

DDes, Professor of Graphic Design

Doubleday’s research expertise and interests are contemporary Chinese graphic design, material culture, and design history. His current research lies in charting and examining the dramatic change in contemporary graphic design that has flourished since China adopted a market-oriented economy in the aftermath of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. This research argues that there is an identifiable, unique Chinese graphic style which is rooted in the collective symbols and motifs of ancient China. Furthermore that, while being transformed by contemporary forces, this aesthetic is predominantly ancient and archetypal in nature, such that merging graphical elements can be found between

Gaglio is a historian of modern and contemporary architectural technology, urbanism, and the environment. Her scholarship addresses the development and implementation of sustainable community planning and architectural strategies in the United States from the late-1960s through the early-1980s. With the aid of a Graham Foundation Research and Development Grant, she is continuing research on the self-sustaining Life Arks, or bioshelters, of the New Alchemy Institute.

contemporary and ancient art forms, in particular through the calligraphic style of the written language, with overlayed acquired graphical styles and contemporary influences. Doubleday is presently conducting field and archival research on graphic design in the modern Republican and Mao eras. This is part of his post-doctoral research on contemporary Chinese graphic design, funded primarily through the ChinaU.S. Scholar Program (CUSP) initiative. Doubleday is also currently at work on a series for Bloomsbury Design Library, featuring short entries on Eastern and Western graphic design history.

Meredith Gaglio PhD, Assistant Professor of Architecture

LSU College of Art & Design

Brendan Harmon PhD, Assistant Professor of Landscape Architecture

Harmon’s research aims to ground design in spatial science by seamlessly integrating geospatial modeling into the creative design process through technologies such as tangible interaction, digital fabrication, and virtual reality. He co-designed Tangible Landscape, a tangible interface for geospatial modeling.

He is currently working on developing ecological robotics with Hye Yeon Nam, associate professor of digital art. He is also exploring drone and lidar data analytics, and has an ongoing research project using drone to determine fluxes in biomass and carbon in the wildflower meadow at Hilltop Arboretum.

Paul Holmquist PhD, Assistant Professor of Architecture

Holmquist’s research focuses on questions of politics and the public realm in historical and contemporary architectural contexts. He is interested in how architecture in the late 18th century aspired to a moral and social agency and the possibility of social change, particularly in French architect Claude-Nicolas Ledoux’s ideal city of Chaux. Paul is preparing a monograph on the intersection of Ledoux’s theory with the political philosophy of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and how architecture for Ledoux became a form of political imagination.

He also researches the contemporary interrelationship of architecture, protest and public space, and the different ways that architecture and urban places can contribute to our experience of political action and the public realm. He is currently examining how the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests at the Robert E. Lee Monument in Richmond materially and symbolically transformed it as an urban space, in which protesters could make tangible their claims for justice through their collective actions.

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William Ma

PhD, Assistant Professor of Art History Ma’s diverse art historical research ranges from late-imperial art of the Chinese court to Jesuit missionary arts. He is particularly interested in issues of ornamentation, material culture, theories of religious, and artistic exchange across borders. Wrapping up his multidisciplinary collaborative project Site and Space in Southeast Asia in Hue, Vietnam this year, he has started several new projects. This includes two based in Louisiana—a critical re-evaluation of the Orientalist works of the Shreveportbased French painter Jean Despujols; and a collaborative investigation with his colleague, assistant professor of landscape architecture Brendan Harmon,

into the history and landscape of the Jungle Garden Buddha on Avery Island. This year he presented his research on the representation of foreigners in 19th-century Chinese decorative arts (at Vanderbilt University), and he was invited to share his reflection on the state of the discipline as part of the panel “The Global Futures of 19th Century Art” at the annual meeting of the College Art Association.

Hye Yeon Nam PhD, Associate Professor of Digital Art

Hye Yeon Nam, associate professor of digital art, recently presented her paper Living Typography: Robotically Printing a Living Typeface, co-authored with Brendan Harmon, assistant professor of landscape architecture; Hunter Gilbert, professor of engineering; and Nasrin Iravani, Doctor of Design candidate. The work presents a robotic process for planting that

enables the computational design of landscapes, demonstrating how robotic planting can be used for artistic and practical applications.

LSU College of Art & Design

Derek Ostrenko Associate Professor of Digital Art

Ostrenko is a media artist who creates physical and virtual systems that examine the intersections of media, culture, and technology. He employs custom hardware and software that use various interfaces such as mobile applications, brain waves, generative visualizations, video processing, animation, and games. His research focuses on pushing art and technology to reveal hidden networks between people by creating structures for innovative forms of expression and discovery.

LSU has launched a new Virtual Reality Production program: LSU has received a $1.25 million investment from Louisiana Economic Development (LED) to accelerate content creation and talent development. The effort will help secure the state’s position in a rapidly changing film and television industry where movies and series increasingly rely on photorealistic gaming technologies for backgrounds and special effects. “Using real-time technology for compositing, visualization, and post-production allows for faster iteration and on-set improvisation,” said Ostrenko, digital art professor in the LSU School of Art with a joint appointment in the LSU Center for Computation & Technology.

Derek Ostrenko demonstrates for students in the new XR studio. Photo by Trai Thomas.

“By building an XR studio that plays on the convergence of virtual, mixed, and augmented reality, we can design tailored experiences that immerse its builders, participants, and viewers.”

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Nick Serrano

Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture

Serrano’s primary research looks at the history of landscape architecture and urban development of the American South. Recently he is working with assistant professor Brendan Harmon on 3D scanning for heritage landscapes, using terrestrial

laser scanning and drone photogrammetry to document Rosedown Plantation in St. Francisville, supported by a grant from the National Park Service’s Historic Preservation Fund.

Darius Spieth PhD, Professor of Art History

A specialist in modernism, Spieth focuses his scholarship on the interrelationships between art, intellectual history, and economics. He is working on his next book The Canon and the Market: How the Symbiosis of Art, Rankings, and Money Evolved over Time. Covering a time frame from classical antiquity to the present day, it will be the first attempt ever undertaken to reconstruct the intellectual history of the economies of art. Chapters will deal with the etymological evolution of the term canon, historical attempts to numerically evaluate artistic quality, an economic interpretation of Vasari’s Lives, an analysis of Winckelmann and his age from the perspective of information efficiency, the role of photography in

Darius Spieth presents the inaugural inaugural Pat Bacot Distinguished Lecture in the Applied Arts at the LSU Museum of Art. Photo by Trai Thomas.

art history and the art market, the role of gatekeepers who shaped ideas of 20th century modern art, and the digital revolution of the 21st century, including the impact of COVID-19 and NFTs. The book is under contract with a major Swiss academic press.

LSU College of Art & Design

Allison Young

PhD, Assistant Professor of Art History

Allison Young is assistant professor of contemporary art history at LSU and an affiliate faculty member in the department of African and African American Studies. A specialist in postcolonial and contemporary art of the Global South, her research centers primarily on African and African-Diasporic artists and art histories, with focus on South African art, British art and visual culture, and questions surrounding migration, transnationalism, and political engagement in contemporary art. Young is currently at work on a book project on the work of South African artist Gavin Jantjes, and is engaged in research on the intersection of contemporary art, environmentalism, and social justice in Louisiana.

“I specialize in contemporary art with an emphasis on African diaspora and global South artists and art histories.”

She is currently engaged in projects relating to two primary research areas. The first is a monographic book project on the work of South African artist Gavin Jantjes, who has lived in Europe since he went into political exile in the early 1970s. The book chronicles his anti-apartheid art and advocacy, while also highlighting transnational networks of art, visual culture, and activism between Africa and the West. Young is also working on research that focuses on contemporary art and issues of environmentalism and social justice here in Louisiana. She was also an advisory board member for the Promise, Witness, Remembrance exhibition at the Speed Art Museum in Louisville, Kentucky. The artistic tribute to Breonna Taylor has been named one of the best art exhibitions of 2021 by the New York Times.

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Jun Zou

Professor of Interior Design With her mixed background of Eastern and Western education systems as well as extended teaching and research experience in both, Zou is interested in researching how cultural, social, and technological aspects affect interior/architecture design research and how they interact with design education. She is currently working on “Light, Lighting, and Enlightening in Architectural Space,” which takes a cross-cultural (Asian and Western) approach to examining light, with investigations about meanings and relationships between light and 3D built environments, and their effect on the people who inhabit the spaces.

Scholarly Students See what LSU Art & Design students have been up to!

Avery Haynes, BLA 2023

JaNiece Campbell, BFA 2022

LSU College of Art & Design

Did You Know?

Tracing a Plan in Kréyol by Irene Brisson

Irene Brisson, assistant professor of architecture, (they/their) is a scholar and designer of built environments invested in the cultivation of just and sustaining places for people. Their research and pedagogy centers historically marginalized narratives of building culture and designers in Haiti and the AfroCaribbean diasporas of the Americas in pursuit of a radically expanded field of global architecture. Their current book project, Kreyòl Architecture: Design in dialogue in Haitian house building,

Q: How does creolization affect the architectural process? A: Writer and literary critic Édouard Glissant described creolization

as an open process with unfixed outcomes, characterized by a dialectic between oral and written discourses. Kreyòl architecture, like that of a house in Leyogann, results from such a dialectic process. In the narrative to follow, dialogue and images are transmitted through the hand-drawn plan into a Kreyòl architecture resultant from transnational encounters of people, technology, and media.

theorizes Kreyòl architecture as a design process which has continuously emerged from the interlacing of liberatory, (neo)colonial, vernacular, industrial, and diasporic spatial practices and which exceeds any fixed historical creole style. Based on extended ethnographic research with architects, bòsmason, NGOs, and residents involved in housebuilding in Leyogàn, this work consider how intimate desires, global influences, and collective politics of domestic environments reproduce and challenge the status quo of building culture. A new research project focuses on the transnational linkages and parallels between building cultures, racial capitalism, and environmental risk in the greater Caribbean and Gulf Coast regions. Brisson’s research has been supported by the US Department of Education Fulbright-Hays program, the Institute for the Humanities and the Rackham Graduate School at the University of Michigan.

Bòs Thomas is a bòsmason (masonry contractor) who designed the house considered here under construction in the Gran Rivyè section of Leyogann, Ayiti (Haiti). In an interview Bòs Thomas described how his training prepared him to read plans and to trase or draw plans, but he distinguished this from how an architect conceives of plans. He did not elaborate on what ineffable difference there was between his and an architect’s plan, but a division in design and trade education is implicated. Nonetheless, in a building culture almost entirely dominated by concrete masonry block construction, it follows that bòsmason come

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to function in many ways as architects in practice, if not in profession. Outside of some upper-class residential, commercial, and civic structures, most buildings in Haiti are built—and de facto designed—by engineers, contractors, or homeowners. When they draw floor plans, they enact a Kreyòl architecture which weaves distributed and diverse influences together.

“M trase [plan], men m pa trase kòm yon achitek” (I draw [plans], but I don’t draw like an architect) —Bòs Thomas

Tracing these physical and conceptual trajectories through the design of a house reveals an on-going process of creolization of domestic space outside the strictures of the profession of architecture. Technical, material, and aesthetic resources from North America and the Caribbean combine in Bòs Thomas’ Kreyòl architecture.

phase of construction in the Gran Rivyè section of Leyogann. Image rights: Irene Brisson/ author, 2018.

02 | Floor plan prepared by Bòs Thomas for construction including column

The house in question was commissioned by a diasporic client living in the United States. Bòs Thomas and his client were both born in Leyogann and had lived abroad. The client who commissioned the house was living in the United States and brought the aesthetics of US suburban housing to bear on his retirement home in Haiti. It fell to Bòs Thomas to integrate the imagery of a US suburban home with a Haitian domestic program, infrastructure, and building culture. He translated certain formal features from the illustrations into the floor plan including a covered entrance way flanked by columns and a bay in the sitting room with a large picture window. The model designed for light-wood framing was rendered instead in concrete block. In tracing the plan, Bòs Thomas negotiated construction methods, cost estimating, space planning, and aesthetics. In executing the construction, implicit details were resolved in conversation between him and the foreman and construction crew. In short, he designed a house.

01 | A house in its first

specifications for cost estimating. Image rights: Irene Brisson/ author, 2018.

03 | Bòs Thomas and foreman reference the plan and discuss a detail pertaining to the placement of an interior column. Image rights: Irene Brisson/ author, 2018.

Listen to Audio

LSU College of Art & Design

Four Minutes On... oH w Fables Matter in Today’s Louisiana

By Darius Spieth, Professor of Art History. Excerpt from Mythologies Louisianaises, reprinted with permission of the curator Jonathan Mayers.

As a literary genre, fables occupy a unique position in the poetic history of French-speaking lands. They owe this importance primarily to Jean de la Fontaine, who, during the seventeenth century, became the first to systematically collect accounts about the hidden life of animals and of nature. A contemporary of Louis XIV’s “classical age,” La Fontaine, of course, derived his inspiration from authors of antiquity, such as Aesop, but in reality the range of source materials for his Fables was much larger and easily transcended France itself. As it is well known, La Fontaine’s Fables subsequently became a pillar of teaching and pedagogy for generations of pupils trained in the French language. They continue to play this didactic role to the present day. But let us not be fooled: fables are much more than tales for children; to say the least, they are not written exclusively for them. They recount the essential truths of adult life in a way that speaks to the imagination and the power of dreams. They are at the same time rational, funny, intuitive, and fantastic. When studied from a cultural perspective, they are both universal and timeless; they constantly redefine the coordinates of time and space

in which they exist. This mutability bestows them with the power of rejuvenation and the ability to speak to us from the perspective of the current situation. This is the case of contemporary creative activity in Louisiana, which is represented here through a selection of works by writers, poets, painters, photographers and printmakers. Among the great topics represented in this visual and literary meeting of minds, one stands out: that of nature and her hidden mysteries. The spirits of the swamps and the bayous, such as the “Loup Garou”, the “Swamp Witch”, the “Feux Follets” and their relationship with the humans with whom they share their grounds, are a central interest of our creators. But sometimes it is the revenge of nature on humans and ecological disasters that attract artists, such as in the paintings by Jonathan Mayers. Nostalgia for the past and death are never far in Louisiana, as evident in pictures by Elise Toups. After all, the cemeteries of New Orleans are as much an attraction for visitors as is Bourbon Street. The panorama is further enriched by the fascination with voodoo and popular traditions such as Mardi Gras and its fabulous parades (Herb Roe) or the

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sociological dimension of creole culture (Charles Barbier).

01 |

A specialist in modernism, Darius A. Spieth focuses his scholarship on the interrelationships between art, intellectual

Surely this is contemporary art, but one that is laced with a significant dose of neo-romanticism. There is no place for abstraction of conceptual art. Painting can reclaim an important place, but not for its own sake, but as figurative work specific to local culture, in which fables become the preferred means to convey the message. Even the photographs and poetry of Randi Willett seem to send us back to an antebellum nineteenth century – the “belle époque” of the Deep South – rather than to the current world. It requires courage to celebrate the characteristics of a specific locale, a strategy which was condescended upon for so long by the avant-garde aesthetics and its doctrines.

history, and economics. Major monographs include Revolutionary Paris and the Market for Netherlandish Art (Brill, 2018) and Napoleon’s Sorcerers: The Sophisians(University of Delaware Press, 2007), which explores the Masonic contexts for the revived Isis cult in Napoleonic France. Spieth is subject editor for Art Markets, Law and Economics for the Grove Dictionary of Art (Oxford University Press), a printed version of which is forthcoming as Grove Guide to Art Markets. He has written or contributed to numerous exhibition catalogs on subjects ranging from

Prints from the

Serenissima: Connoisseurship and the Graphic Arts in Eighteenth-Century Venice(Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, MA, 2002) to

Ancient

Egypt’s Mysteries and Freemasonry(Kestner Museum, Hanover, Germany, 2017). Recent

It is the great accomplishment of artists, writers, and poets to muster the courage to return to narrative content, to allegories, to fables, and to bring the task of a specific sensitivity for a dialogue with the unique cultural situation in Louisiana and its close links to the francophone tradition.

Jonathan Mayers.

Gran Koshon fouré kont

research projects include a study on the tacit complicity between the canons of art history and art markets across time, and the “roman cosmopolite” (“cosmopolitan novel”) as a mirror of the French art scene between the two World Wars. Spieth is the San Diego Alumni Association Chapter Alumni Professor.

Gardyin Latannyé (The Great Wooded Boar vs. The Palm Guardian). Acrylic and Jean Lafitte sediment on panel, repurposed frame. 33 x 41 in. 2016. Courtesy of the artist and Arthur Roger Gallery.

LSU College of Art & Design 18

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Sustaining Louisiana’s Cultural Heritage Jonathan “radbwa faroush” Mayers, BFA 2007, artist and Baton Rouge poet laureate, has taken on a daunting challenge: continuing Kouri-Vini, the endangered creole language of Louisiana that many call Louisiana Creole. To this end, Mayers’ artistic practice celebrates the rich cultural heritages and the unique landscape of Louisiana, while integrating written language with visual art. He calls it Latannyèrizm. “Language is a part of all of my work,” he said. “If I didn’t have any language aspect to my work or didn’t speak any other language, I wouldn’t necessarily be as interested in making artwork and writing as I am right now.” A Baton Rouge native, Mayers is a writer, visual artist and cultural activist who majored in studio arts with a concentration in painting and drawing from LSU and his Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of New Orleans. As poet laureate he hopes to “open up a dialogue on multilingualism and bridge communities through poetry.”

Photo by Ronni Bourgeois.

“Jonathan’s work inspires others to protect and preserve the historic Creole culture within Louisiana; the combination of both Kouri-Vini and his talents will help keep this language alive for future generations,” said Sharon Weston Broome, Baton Rouge Mayor-President.

Read More Mayers’ personal website: www.jonathanmayers.com Instagram @feral_opossum Twitter @jonathanmayers

20 LSU College of Art & Design

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Bobogri a

Bulbancha (Bobogris in Bulbancha) by Jonathan “radbwa faroush” Mayers. Casein and Louisianasourced beeswax on panel, repurposed frame. 14 x 16 in. 2019. Courtesy of the artist.

He is co-editor of the forthcoming book Févi, set to be published soon. Written in Kouri-Vini, a language that has historically not enjoyed much institutional or educational presence, Févi will help to continue Kouri-Vini and hopefully reach larger audiences who have yet to encounter it. “In your heritage languages, when you have folk tales and stories and traditions that exist in those spaces and didn’t necessarily get translated or get passed down because of the idea that your language is ‘lesser than,’ then you lose part of your culture.” So Mayers aims to continue to evolve the culture and language into this century, by actively creating new artistic works in the language and in sharing the cultural traditions to perpetuate rather than crystallize Louisiana’s legacies. His path to this project has not been straightforward – when he started out at LSU, he had no idea of the journey he would embark upon. When Mayers first went to LSU in 2002 he began studying computer science before switching to graphic design, and finally studio art to focus on painting. He went on to get his MFA from UNO in 2011, and married.

After going through a divorce in 2015 he decided: “I’m going to do this thing that I’ve been wanting to do for like 10 years and that’s go actually learn French and be able to speak it.” So he started learning in the immersion program at Université Sainte-Anne in Nova Scotia. Upon learning French, he then decided to learn Kouri-Vini, another heritage language of his family. “Kouri-Vini was born and bred here in Louisiana, now spoken by less than 10,000 people around the world, and it’s in danger,” he said. Through exploring the languages historically spoken by his family, he gained perspectives and a greater understanding of the culture that he comes from, he said. Before, “I didn’t necessarily understand why we did or said certain things that was not exactly like how other people would say it or do it.”

“And so I just have a difierent understanding of what the world is, or could be like.”

02 |

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Gran Koshon fouré

kont Gardyin Latannyé (The Great Wooded Boar vs. The Palm Guardian) by Jonathan “radbwa faroush” Mayers. Acrylic and Jean Lafitte

As a painter Mayers includes written stories to accompany the works, both in English and translated into Kouri-Vini, integrating the traditions and mythologies of Louisiana’s historic culture with his works. As an artist with an interest in environmental activism, he uses natural materials in his artwork that have meaningful personal connections. Now he is making strides to find and visit places where his ancestors lived and take some of the physical earth itself to use in his art. “Sediment or sand or mud, clay - I use those in all of my works.”

“Place is something extremely important to me and my work.” “I bring a little bit of the real physical place to the illusion so people get a sense of what the earth looks like; the feel that it’s a wet environment because of how I adorn the frames,” he said. “Making that real physical connection with the place, at least for me personally, and then bringing it to folks to be able to see, is [so] meaningful.” Louisiana’s natural environment also plays a central role in the themes of his

paintings. Mayers is acutely aware of the effects of climate change on Louisiana’s environment: the places where his ancestors lived are changing drastically as sea level rises. “We don’t know exactly how things are going to be built down here in the next hundred years. Some of the places that I’ve been to could be underwater by the time I’m my grandfather’s age.” So his work is like a time capsule, a sarcophagus. “It’s a painted illusion of the place, but then, all these creatures inhabit this space,” he described. “These creatures are sometimes metaphors for humans and what we’ve done to the environment. Sometimes they become new myths and legends for people who protect the environment. They’re all different stories.” During the COVID-19 pandemic, he started writing more, beyond “the micro stories and prose poetry” that had accompanied his paintings, and ideas for a book began to take shape. At the end of 2020 he put out a call for submissions for a new book of poetry written in Kouri-Vini and received many of responses – and Févi was born. “In this new book, it ranges from people who have been reading and writing and speaking it for quite some time to people who are just learning so it’s kind of a nod to the cultural and linguistic activism of

sediment on panel, repurposed frame. 33 x 41 in. 2016. Courtesy of the artist and Arthur Roger Gallery.

03 | Poux de sable à la Grande Île (Sand Lice on Grand Isle) by Jonathan “radbwa faroush” Mayers. Acrylic and Grand Isle sand on panel, repurposed frame. 15.5 x 19.5 in. 2018. Courtesy of the artist and Arthur Roger Gallery.

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“One of the goals is to show that our language is still here. It’s still living. We’re still here and still living and breathing and creating and continuing a language that even 100 years ago was thought to be dying, soon lost.” the community of people who have been learning it.” As Baton Rouge poet laureate he is pushing for the community to continue or begin writing about their experiences. As a language activist, he encourages people if they are interested in learning more about language and culture, to pursue studying it further. Mayers has been working with Henry Johnson, current LSU Art & Design student, to start a Louisiana Creole club at the university to connect students interested in learning about Louisiana’s cultural heritage. “What I’m trying to do is teach people, whether Creole or just someone interested in cultures, mainly the Louisiana Creole language, but also its history and development, music, food, really just trying to hit everything that makes the culture as beautiful and vibrant as it is,” Johnson said. “I wanted to do this because I feel for people looking for the culture whether

for familial or just educational purposes; you can’t really find much on your own without knowing what exactly to search for because the Louisiana Creole language as we know it has been endangered for a while for a long list of reasons and when you do try and search for things on it, it’s overshadowed by the idea of everything being ‘Cajun,’” he said. “When I came I noticed LSU, despite their motto of trying to exhibit Louisiana cultures, only had a course for Louisiana French. So I decided I wanted to fill that void to give people like me, and many other Creoles interested in knowing more about their heritage, a place.” Mayers hopes that LSU students, now and in the future, find their places. For aspiring artists, Mayers offers the advice that was given to him as a young artist by Carrie Ann Baade, this year’s guest juror for Baton Rouge Gallery’s Surreal Salon 14: consider “what will your retrospective look like in 30 or 40 years? Reflect on it and start making the work that you want to see in 30 years.” “If you come from a culture that is being muted, or if you as an individual are being muted in some form or fashion, use that in your work. Infuse that in your work, because your work is also going to become part of your culture.”

04 | Lané a kawènn-la (The Year of the Turtle) by Jonathan “radbwa faroush” Mayers. Acrylic and Louisiana swamp mud from various regions on panel, repurposed frame. 26.25 x 21.5 in. 2020. Courtesy of the artist and the State Library of Louisiana. Created for the 17th Annual Louisiana Book Festival.

LSU College of Art & Design

I Made That! Nasrin Iravani

Doctor of Design Candidate in Cultural Preservation (Fabrication Culture and Technology)

The focus of my doctor of design thesis is to document the design and fabrication practices with the possibility of incorporation of robotic fabrication and art history data in order to create ceramicoriented projects. My research is all about computational design and Persian ceramics collaboration. While giving attention to the historical and cultural identity of digital design, my research attempts to showcase how computer-aided technology and robotics have been used to make digital art and crafts.

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The goal is to help heritage art works to stay alive and preserved in modern world. To do so, I am analyzing historical Persian ceramics and their unique features and creating a bridge between tradition and modernity in forms, medium and fabrication processes. A series of digital technology, robotics and engineering procedures, have been employed to achieve the desired result. For example, Rhinoceros 3D, a computer-aided design application, and one of its plugins, named Grasshopper, have been employed to model the following: virtual objects, create different parametric models, and robotic algorithms.

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Digital technology and tools such as 3D printers and robots used as a medium to create new fabrication process and ceramic projects in my own style. Furthermore, digital techniques and applications have been involved to create the desired fabrication process while historical background and traditional values has been always considered.

between the hand-building process and 3D printing process. Some of these differences include speed, the quality, the size of final objects, flexibility and freedom to momentarily change during the making process such as fastening the making process or slowing it down by relevant programing or control all the fabrication processes digitally.

Technology become co-participant in the creative process. The sociological approach, known as Actor-Network-Theory, provides a conceptual framework that clarifies what it means to work with technology as a medium. There are significant differences

Today’s technology expands the boundaries of ceramic art and design in unimaginable ways. Additionally, massive technological advancements have created new options for designers and craftspeople. Very imaginative and sophisticated ceramic sculptures may be manufactured excellently thanks to growing technology and digital fabrication techniques, and convey the beauty of ceramic items as much as possible. Using tech opens up a world of possibilities for connecting people across sectors and professions. The incorporation of technology and art always impacts more than just the fabricated objects, which may result in the emergence of expected novel creative practices.

LSU College of Art & Design

Field Notes Snapshots From Our Travels

After over a year of restrictions and precautions taken during the COVID-19 pandemic, LSU Art & Design classes are returning to (almost) normalcy – including going on long-awaited field trips!

Architecture Venice, Italy

Students in the fall 2021 Design Paris study abroad program had the opportunity to travel to Venice for the Biennale Architettura “Living in the Grands Ensembles?” The event brought together international designers including 130 students, practitioners, researchers, and elected officials, to question those responsible for urban policies. “The 2021 Venice Architecture Biennale invited architects and researchers to exhibit their work between the Central Pavilion at the Giardini, the Arsenale, and Forte Marghera, seeking to answer the general theme of ‘How will we live together?’ It was a great opportunity for the participants to explore their experiences from difierent perspectives.” —Nusrat Sultana, MArch

Art New Orleans Read More

Art history assistant professor Allison Young’s “Sites of Contemporary Art” class visited Prospect New Orleans, a triennial art exhibition throughout the city. Young organized a day-long tour for the art students to visit of some Prospect venues, including the Newcomb Art Museum, the Ogden Museum of Southern art, the Contemporary Art Center, Capdeville Park, the New Orleans African American Museum and a few small venues throughout the Bywater neighborhood. “Touring Prospect in New Orleans was amazing. The culture and spirit were intoxicating as well as informational. Tulane’s Art Museum featured pieces that were brilliantly done and put a strong emphasis on color and placement. Professors Young and Ariaz were great hosts and I learned so much about the art culture in New Orleans.” — Chris Toombs, MFA

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Interior Design Arkansas & Texas

Interior design students toured of Arkansas, visiting the Crystal Bridges Museum and other notable sights. In February 2022 instructor Julie Elliott took design students in the interdisciplinary healthcare course to Houston, Texas for the AIA 2022 Annual SES Student Health Design Competition. “The students had a fantastic trip. They toured Clinton Library & Museum, in Little Rock, Arkansas, visited Marlon Blackwell Architects in Fayetteville, and saw the stunning Thorncrown Chapel in u E reka Springs.” —Marsha Cuddeback, School of Interior Design Director

Landscape Architecture Yosemite, California Over spring break LSU landscape architecture students traveled with professors Max Conrad and Haley Blakeman to the Pacific West Coast, to explore the natural landscapes of the great American west. “We traveled along the West Coast for ten days with 40 students over spring break. We visited landscape architecture firms, three national parks, state parks, public plazas, downtown streets, and other samples of landscape architecture in California, Nevada, and Arizona.” —Haley Blakeman, assistant professor of landscape architecture

LSU College of Art & Design

Class Notes

Keeping Up with Art & Design Alumni

1970s

Charles J. Collins, Jr. (BArch 1972) is architect-principal at Charles J. Collins, Jr., Architects in Medford, New Jersey. Phill Evans (BFA 1973), sculpture concentration, debuted the exhibition Perpetual Curiosity at the Acai Gallery in Fair Oaks, California in October 2021. Evans operates his sculptural design business near Sacramento, California, which he opened soon after graduating LSU in 1973. Phill Evans Sculptural Design has won national awards in ornamental metals and animated displays accompany national and international awards for kinetic public art and sculptural environments.

Mary Mowad Guiteau (BID 1997) has become a shareholder in Holly & Smith Architects. Guiteau is director of interior design at H/S and has more than 24 years of commercial design experience. She joined the firm in 2007 and has been a state-registered interior designer since 2001.

1990s

Jon Gallinaro (BLA 1999) is President/ CEO of Southland Partners, Inc. in Atlanta, Georgia.

Norman Johnson (BLA 1973) is principal of Norman Kent Johnson in Birmingham, Alabama.

1980s

Frederick “Rick” Sanders (MLA 1981) retired as principal of Frederick Cornwell Sanders. He was recently appointed by the City of Rockledge, Florida to be a Commissioner on the Community Redevelopment Commission.

Victor F. “Trey” Trahan, III (BArch 1983), FAIA, has been selected as the 2021 Laureate for The American Prize for Architecture by The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design and The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies.

Eddy Herty (BFA 2000), graphic design concentration, is VP, national creative director of OUTFRONT Studios. He is based in Atlanta, Georgia.

2000s

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Missy Miremont Begue (BID 2002) is account executive at CI Group in Baton Rouge.

Melony Breaux Fields (BID 2004) is managing partner of Corporate Interiors of Baton Rouge (CI Group) in Baton Rouge. William Doran (BArch 2008) is an architect and senior project manager for the City of New York Citywide Administrative Services. He is a licensed architect in Louisiana and New York.

Rodneyna O’Conner Hart (BFA 2008), painting & drawing, sculpture concentrations, is museum division director of the Louisiana State Museum in Baton Rouge. Hart received a gubernatorial appointment to the Louisiana State Arts Council in 2017 and served as the council’s representative on the Folklife Commission for Louisiana. In 2018, she was nominated and chosen as one of Baton Rouge Business Report’s “Forty Under 40.” In 2019, Hart accepted the position of museum division director for the Louisiana State Museum overseeing the four regional museums: Capitol Park Museum in Baton Rouge, E.D. White Historic Site in Thibodaux, Wedell-Williams Aviation and Cypress Sawmill Museum in Patterson,

and Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame and Northwest Louisiana History Museum in Natchitoches. Hart adds structural support to further the success of each institution through programming, partnerships, and exhibitions.

Mikelyn Matthews (BFA 2008), painting & drawing concentration, is an artist based in Gonzales, Louisiana. David Newman (BLA 2008), ASLA has been promoted to associate principal at MESA Design Group in Dallas, Texas. Since joining MESA in 2014, Newman has managed a number of complex design projects across a broad client base. Most recently, he has taken leadership of the firm’s urban design market sector. His knowledge and hands-on approach have been instrumental in the successful design and implementation of several awardwinning projects. Niki Landry (BID 2009) is senior project manager at HPA Design Group in Taos, New Mexico.

LSU College of Art & Design

2010s

Louise Bordelon (MLA 2010) has been promoted to assistant professor and interim chair in the department of landscape architecture at University of Colorado Denver.

Alex Morvant (BLA 2016) is a landscape

Michael Griffith (BLA 2010) ran for the

architect at Ten Eyck Landscape Architects in New Braunfels, Texas.

for Arvada City Council. He is a licensed landscape architect and urban designer with 12 years of experience designing, managing, and leading innovative public realm infrastructure projects and mixeduse developments. As a member of the City Planning Commission he advocates for necessary housing and infrastructure projects that are a great opportunity to shape the future of the city while preserving historic charm and empowering existing communities.

Emily Cerniglia Farrington (BID 2013) is interior designer at CI Group in Baton Rouge.

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Dean Kelly (MArch 2014) has been promoted to principal at Rice Fergus Miller, an architectural firm in Bremerton, Washington. Dean will help lead the firm’s senior living studio. He also specializes in mixed-use, market-rate housing, community, and master planning projects including the recently completed Panorama assisted living community center and courtyard, the Emerald Heights

campus façade renovation, Horizon House master plan, and Evergreen Pointe for Sound West Group.

Henry Bein (BArch 2019) is an architect at Kevin Harris Architect, LLC, in Baton Rouge. A registered architect in Louisiana, he has worked professionally with Kevin Harris Architect, LLC, since 2018 on custom residential, ecclesiastical, and historic preservation projects across Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi. Henry specializes in classical and traditional architecture and currently serves as the Education Committee Chairman for the Louisiana Chapter of the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art. In October 2021, Henry was awarded The ICAA Scholarship for the Intensive in Classical Architecture: Houston.

Courtney Chase Jones, nee Crane, (BArch 2020) is an architect at Studio West Design & Architecture. She enjoys working on a variety of hospitality and commercial projects across the historic districts of New Orleans.

2020s

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Alumni Spotlight Jeffrey Stouffer (BArch ’84), global director and executive vice president at HKS Architects, fuses architectural principles with evidence-influenced design to transform health environments. To achieve his clients’ visions and holistic results for patients, a meeting of the minds with creatives, engineers, and scientists is key. After graduating LSU in May 1984, Jeff Stouffer was awarded an 18-month graduate fellowship in healthcare design. Following that, he moved to Dallas and has been with HKS for decades. He is focused on improving the environment of care in all health settings for patients, families, and staff. As the Global Health Director, Jeff travels to many of the 24 offices globally, working with the office leadership, optimizing teams and supporting the delivery of projects for clients in health, hospitality, sports, mixed-use, and corporate projects.

Jeffrey and Gayle Stouffer created an interdisciplinary fund at the LSU College of Art & Design to promote collaboration in the architecture field.

Jeff and Gayle Stouffer made a generous investment to the college’s facilities this year. On LSU Giving Day 2022, every gift made to the College of Art & Design was matched up to $75,000 by the Stouffer family in support of the Studio Arts Building Renovation Fund. This challenge gift helped to raise over $115,000 to support LSU Art & Design students, and transform the spaces where they create.

LSU College of Art & Design

Equipped

with Cecelia Moseley, MFA Sculpture Candidate

Read More Moseley’s personal website: www.cmoseleyfineart.com Instagram @cc_art_design

Cecelia Moseley is an artist from Meridian, Mississippi, who received her Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in Sculpture from The University of Mississippi Spring of 2020. For Cecelia, creating art, whether sculptures or paintings, has always played some part in her life. Diagnosed with dyslexia at an early age, she found it difficult to express herself through writing and turned to art. “My work intends to bring awareness about not only my own trials with dyslexia, but also to others who deal with the affliction. It intends to depict the intangible, mental struggles which are not visible to the everyday person. For those people that do not exactly know what dyslexia feels like, I hope to reflect those frustrations and help create a better understanding for the viewer. The importance of bringing more awareness to this issue is so that hopefully one day society can better assist a person who needs intervention and accommodation.”

“Assistance” by Cecelia Moseley, 2021. Iron casting, steel, marble 6” x 2.5” x 10”

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1 4 3

12 12

9 Photo by Trai Thomas.

Auto-Darkening Welding Helmet is a safeguard from flying sparks hitting the face and it also protects eyes from the blinding fluorescent welding spark. MIG Welder is the hot glue gun of welding! Metal Inert Gas is an arc welding process that uses a continuous solid wire fed creating a weld.

Safety Glasses are a necessity to protect the eyes when using power tools or equipment.

The Wire Brush is used for cleaning off debris before, after and between each pass to avoid contamination of the weld.

A Clamp helps keep objects secure to prevent them from moving or separating.

Hearing Protection is worn to protect the ears from loud noises to prevent hearing loss.

An Angle Grinder is what is used to clean the surface and polish metal for a final finish.

Steel Sheet is the material I use to create art by cutting, bending, and welding together.

Tape Measure, Measure twice cut once! This tool is used to measure size or distance, which is really important.

Gloves are a priority in the studio to protect the hands when welding because of the heat, flames, and electric shock.

A Speed Square is used as a guide to create multiple angles when drawing lines on materials before cutting.

Files are used to remove rough edges and burrs from cuts made on metal.

Arrow Welding Magnet holds surfaces together until they can be welded together. Typically it is used to align right angle corners.

Louisiana State University 102 Design Building Baton Rouge, LA 70803-70101 design.lsu.edu

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Quad: LSU College of Art & Design Magazine | Summer 2022

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Quad: LSU College of Art & Design Magazine | Summer 2022