Contents WXTJ Playlist..........................................3 Creative Writing....................................5 Skylarking...........................................13 Flipping the Script...............................25 Loree Seitz
Is Style Inherent?................................27 Chloe Becker
Let Go and Be Dragged.........................29 Carly Lester
Student Art...........................................31 Counterpoint........................................37
STAFF Editors in Chief: Kate Snyder and Kia Wassenaar Features Editor: Andre Hirschler Photographers: Catherine Clark and Anna Warner Designers: Christina Hara, Emily Bekker, Annabel Gleason, Isabella Whitfield Social Media Managers: Aryana Jimenez, Enya Pfeiffer, Leo ZHang, Elizabeth Henebry Financial Officer: Lydia Kim
Editors’ Note Both of us came to V Magazine in our first semesters and have been lucky enough to watch the magazine grow profoundly over four years of involvement. The previous Editor in Chief, Michelle Miles, set a precedent of inclusivity and thoughtfulness that we have worked to uphold in her place, maintaining V Mag’s function as a unique space within the University for self-expression and cultural dialogue. Having both worked in a variety of roles on the magazine’s staff, we understand the importance of taking creative work seriously at the undergraduate level, especially in areas such as fashion, design, and creative writing, which find fewer outlets at UVA. As Co-Editors in Chief, we have both been eager to work in new creative capacities, especially in our shared desire to push the V Mag photoshoots to new heights. To this end, with our growing awareness of the harmful effects of fast fashion, a subject that our writers have explored extensively in past issues, we have committed to crafting looks that remain at fashion’s cutting edge, sourced ethically and sustainably. In addition to our renewed focus on the magazine’s photographic components, we have also worked to make V Mag increasingly cohesive across all platforms by expanding our social media team and revamping our web presence. Additionally, a continued partnership with WXTJ Student Radio has further allowed us to cultivate a holistic approach to art by bringing music into the fold. The ability to showcase such a high caliber of student talent across various media including photography, writing, visual art, and design is what makes V Magazine an essential venue for artistic representation. We are so proud of this season’s outcome, thanks in large part to our outstanding team who have helped us to fully realize our favorite issue yet.
Cheers, we’ll see you in the Spring,
Kia and Kate
With Commentary From Jake Shaw Ever since its inception, techno music has been heavily associated with two things: dance, and the space of the club. Techno as a term and music genre manifested in Detroit in the 1980s before moving to the UK and Germany where the music developed into what we know as techno today. The club and techno music serve a critical function as a space that fosters both community and self-expression. The appreciation of techno music and the accompanying dance provides a unifying foundation for individuals, but beyond this baseline, techno and the club space intersect with a variety of dimensions of social life. The fashion styles that are associated with club culture have always stood out as mediums of self-expression for individuals that frequent the club, and frequently interact with high fashion, creating a dialogue between the underground and high culture. Most importantly, the club can be the locus of social dialogue, serving as one of the most open spaces for marginalized groups. However, there is a noted level of fanaticism around club culture that may not be merited by just these reasons listed. The artist Michele Rizzo offers an explanation for such behavior in his performance piece “HIGHER xtn.” The piece itself is straight forward, consisting of dancers performing a repetitive, yet forward moving routine to an entrancing piece of composition by the pioneer of “pointillistic trance” techno music, Lorenzo Senni. Rizzo describes the piece as an exploration of the club as a space of communion that can evoke “para-religious” experiences and states of “flow, totality, and transcendence,” along with serving as a space for the exploration of the self. Recordings and readings on Rizzo’s piece are available on the Stedelijk Museum’s website. The opportunity for communion and expression that the club space allows is critical as a break from our daily routines. However, clubs and techno itself are often absent outside of those locals in which the culture is heavily rooted. Charlottesville is certainly scarce in such spaces. Hoping to remedy this scarcity, myself and a few other DJs have begun throwing our own club inspired events under the name “Klubnacht.” Having live DJs play techno music and providing a space to dance has provided at least the foundation for a club experience, and going into the future we hope to train new DJs who are interested in learning. 3
VMAG and WXTJ PRESENT:
“CARMARGUE”........................................CJBOLLAN “GROOVE LA CHORD”.......................................ARIL BRIKHA “IN PRIVATE”..........................................B.I.G.S.H.R.I.M.P. “THE MAN WITH THE RED FACE”......................LAURENT GARNIER “RATIO - EDIT.”............................................FLOATING POINTS “HI-TECH JAZZ”............................................GALAXY 2 GALAXY “IT MAKES YOU FORGET (ITGHANE) - EDIT”.....................PEGGY GOU “SOME KIND OF GAME”..................................AGAINST ALL LOGIC “COMPUTER LVOE - 2009 REMASTER”..............................KRAFTWERK “ROMEO, ROMEO”.................................ROSS FROM FRIENDS “CLK RECOVERY”....................................OBJEKT “ROLLERCOASTER”........................NEGATIVE GEMINI “FILM”...............................APHEX TWIN
Curated by Kia Wassenaar Contributers: Justin Hennessy, Brad Sheen, Manuel Clavel, Daniel Kiracofe, Max Russ, McAntony Benson-Okey, Jake Shaw, Charlie Bailey, and Levi Schult 4
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A simple life By Marwah Shuaib
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getting yelled at by my mother for buying a wine-colored lipstick from the aunty at the corner store. Clutching the plastic tube, she told me that simple girls didn’t wear dark colors on their lips. Simple girls, I thought, later that night. I liked the sound of it. I looked at myself in the mirror, combing my hair over and over until it lay flat against my head. The maang was straight like the blade of a knife. I wondered what it might feel like to be a simple girl. I wanted to ask Sandhana what she thought. But she was momentarily distracted by a wailing siren, getting up from her chair to lean over the edge of the terrace. An ambulance rattled by, frantic. She watched it go until it disappeared into the din of traffic, its flashing light like an extinguished star. ❧
want a simple life, I said to Sadhana, having a cup of tea on the terrace of her brother’s place in Karachi. Simple, like the fluid movements of her hand from kettle to mug to sugar-pot to spoon. Like the black shirt I thought she might have slept in, its lines crooked yet clean. In the months following the dissolution of my second engagement and my failing grade from a mediocre master’s program, I was asked, everywhere I went, what it was, exactly, that I wanted. Sandhana had not asked but I’d told her anyway. Simple. Like the orderly retinue of police officers going down the street in armored Jeeps, rifles pointed. Like the old man at the crosswalk, who sold whirring plastic toys from a crate strapped to his body. The on-and-off, the clicking rhythm. I remembered being thirteen and
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These jeAns By Eliot Van Noy
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at deep into the sides of my belly and hips and rubbed me tightly where my mother wouldn’t have bought them if she knew they were turning her daughter into a shopper for cradles, gahdamn I wanted to make a baby so bad, and before there is a curiosity about the throbbing caused by these jeans, let me assure that it surely wasn’t tied to a dream of a man-mind, but the sinister and unavoidable call of firm denim shaping flesh and fat into mirror miracle of “mary mother of christ look at my ass in these jeans” and the tightness, the tightness, the side-effect of the rotten being squeezed out. So no, these jeans weren’t worn to stop class for anyone, except the wearer. I raised my hand to go to the bathroom because the inseam was beginning to violate in a scope not quite breath-throughable. These jeans had to be unbuttoned in the hallway before the chick stamped on the bathroom door was even in sight. My walking was plastered, like a waitress trying to
clear tables after too many shift drinks, and that dress wearing floozy, supposed to be an icon for all women-kind, greeted me with a smug blankness never before seen on a stick figure. The dance I did to pull the jeans off was chicken in origin, arms gathering all the authority arms get when they’re trying to pull off a pair of too-tight jeans, folded like the wings of avian egg-layer, my neck so crunched over in concentration, I saw myself as a baby bird that fledged too soon from the nest and broke its neck. The zipper teeth were biting my tummy-skin, and I said a ‘fuck,’ and when my butt drove backwards, I looked like no one’s baby bird or baby or mother at all. All the hope of ever getting out of these jeans was suffocating under the weight of the too tight denim. Then the door swung open and banged against the wall and time stopped and the jeans got tighter if that were possible, and the wearer of the jeans shuffle-ran into the corner facing away from the intruder, staring at the deep well of the linoleum 7
corner, and man I was hoping whoever this was didn’t recognize my hunching backside, asking god, jesus, anyone, for anonymity, pleading not to be noticed with my zipper half-way edging down by my hips. “Sorry, are you okay?” Intruder intruding, what a flea-ridden lilac, whoever this is smells like lilacs. It probably would be better to be vomiting right now was all I could think, and I didn’t respond, just squinted into the face of courage and tried not to let the jeans restrict blood flow into the brain. The intruder went into the stall to make a tampon out of toilet paper. She twisted and pulled cheap one-ply into the shape she needed, and she hoped hard and long that the girl outside wouldn’t get a whiff of coppery fragrance of her bloodied underwear because it was day two and strong. She heard the other girl moving a lot, and she flushed the color of the bleed-through panties now sitting in the plastic dispensary bin where little bloodied fingerprints smudged some other bleeder’s path of unprepared-
ness. She mourned briefly the ruining of a pair so long dedicated for the purpose of period accidents, her name was sharpied on the butt part from a summer camp and oh wait lord they’re gonna see these and know they’re mine and the other girl will call the office, and I can’t very well march out and bury them beneath all the used paper towels in front of this girl so she stuck them in her bra and swallowed a heavy dose of get the hell out there, and she stuck her hands under the faucet, unable to even look at herself in the mirror. She came out of the bathroom and I was squirming and running my hands all up and down the back of her thighs. “I like your jeans,” she said, and there, right there, I had to groan and nod and straighten out my tired spine. I turned to face this sole witness, and there was Kathy with this little look of drained panic across her face, and she had cotton panties sticking out the top of her dress, and I was practically flashing her. So we washed our hands. She asked about my art class. ❧ 8
Oh, nAncy I’d like to bring my whole face to your counter and lick it, Empty out your vacuum and sprinkle its dust on my oatmeal, Climb into your silk stocking and experience chrysalis, Discuss Good Housekeeping’s advice on cooking summer fruits, Goodly Housekeep you, and cook your summer fruits, Pan fry the insoles of your white pumps, and serve them for dinner, Say Oh, Nancy— Come in quick and eat before dinner gets cold.
i meT my BelOved! I met my beloved! In nature! For a date! She smiled! As I approached! Then suddenly! A great white flash! & we became! Crystalline shapes! I sand! & her sugar! Frozen in a moment! Of almost meeting! We stretched! Our fingertips! To bridge the gap! But could not stretch At all! Our highly ordered! Microscopic structures! Could only reach each other! If disordered! We tried! To weep! But could not! & slowly! I forgot! What it means To weep! Forgot need! Knew only the sun! & my own Geometry! I did not understand time! But it passed! & rain came! We melted! At different paces! & met again! On the ground! Seeped into each other! Became one structure! We did not remember! What it meant! To be one! But were glad! To be bound! And sinking down! Into the earth!
By Lyla Ward 9
UnTiTled 8.3.19 exalting someone or something in the highest but not knowing who or why or when or how fragmented truth sends flickered shadow on bent lips a faucet weeps with eerie candor a bothering thought, like syrup on skin but i remain a statue while waves urge me to flee a torrent bleeding of whispers cradle sweet desire what am i to make you, oh mirror the self that stares back is a stranger fingerprints on reflection though you nor i hold answers as of late beginning and end dance parallel as one watches the other unravel
By Enya Pfeiffer 10
missed cOnnecTiOns By SooYun Byeon
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he city had a certain smell in the morning time – especially after it rained. It stunned me as I left my apartment to unchain my green bicycle from the rack. As I glided through the Upper West Side, the crispness of the cool morning temperature resembled the cleanliness of laundry detergent mixed with drying concrete, which smelled like Spring only with a hint of hot garbage. The direct heat from the sun peering down through the parallel streets almost made me forget it was September. As I whirled down Broadway Avenue towards 56th street, I saw the ordinary, which translates to nothing ordinary at all in New York. Deli owners berated homeless men sleeping outside their stores, tall businessmen dressed from head to toe in Banana Republic looked straight, their gaze three feet above everyone else, and smoke shops lit up their animated displays of bongs, bowls, and one-hitters. I focused on the narrow, turquoise bike lane
to the best of my ability as I examined the blur of faces that zipped past me. Despite being surrounded by the most diverse, eclectic crowds people often failed to make an impression on me. People usually looked down as they walked. I approached an intersection on 41st and 6th ave, marked by a Dunkin Donuts, Starbucks, Zaros, and a local coffee shop – each on one corner. I contemplated the necessity of four rival coffee shops and nearly lusted at the delicious drama they must have. I almost got lost in this perplexity of coffee, but then I looked up. A man with short black hair, a perfectly trimmed beard, and a charmingly crooked smile stopped his bike alongside mine. Our eyes met and suddenly I had gone into battle. He wasn’t my enemy though. No. We were long lost comrades. His eyes were brown – the type of brown that’s kind yet piercing. Within the brown lay subtle specks of gold, hidden like a treasure rare to the commoner. The subtle 11
droopiness of his eyelids hugged the tops of his cornea, round and full. It felt as if the tiny centers of our pupils emitted beams that instinctually married. I felt my chest slowly rise and fall as my heartbeat mimicked the pace of the racing cars and drummed louder than any performer I’d heard in a subway car. His eyes weren’t particularly large, but they were strong. I wanted to say something, but he foolishly beat me to it. “I like your glasses.” Then the light turned green and he turned right and I continued straight. Those words tortured me. Either he was an asshole who went around flirting with girls just to vanish after a single compliment, or he was an idiot who spoke without thinking and didn’t think much of it. I stared incessantly at my black Armani glasses. The round frame, which resembled two rectangles with smoothed edges, taunted me with its brown ripples, fading into a medley of black. Suddenly brown was a beautiful color. And a stupid one.
At work I set aside the towering piles of files I had to sort and got to my real work. My fingers shook nervously as I Google searched “Craigslist Missed Connections.” First, I symbolically gagged at the desperation that oozed from my computer screen. Was I really at the point in my life where I needed Craigslist to find men? I swallowed my embarrassment and typed in my dilemma titled “Hot Wheels: Mystery Midtown Man.” At the very least I was going to get a laugh out of this. Days quickly passed and each morning and evening I’d search for the gold specks I had come to love. The search grew arduous and my hope fleeted with each rotation of the wheels. That was, until I heard the fateful “ping” noise, the craigslist notification dropped down, and I felt the beams from my pupils again- this time into my phone. He liked my glasses, his name was Isaac, and he wanted to see me again. ❧
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SKYLARKING Photographer: Anna Warner Models: Rebekah Boggs, Jake Shaw, and Devin Willis Creative Directors: Kate Snyder and Kia Wassenaar Assistant Stylist: Ben Lerner
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Flipping the Script The Evolution of Female Relationships in the Media
In a more contemp orar y example, Sex and the City (1998-2004) follows the friendship of four unique women as they explore their friendship, sexuality, and professional pursuits. While the women often discuss their sexuality and romantic lives, they speak about them in a manner that highlights how these experiences affect their emotions and personal life, readjusting how society thinks about personal sexuality as focused less on the male and more on female needs. By bringing more complexity to how audiences perceive of women speaking about relationships and their sexuality, Sex and the City breaks down stigmas regarding more taboo topics and reconfigures their importance for women. Despite these achievements, Sex and the City still often times fails the Bechdel test, and usually confines the women to discuss their romantic and sexual lives, reinforcing the image of women as sex objects. Additionally, by only representing white upper-middle class women, the show reinforces the privileging of white voices over minority voices. R e c e nt tel e v i s i on show s , however, have given minorities, especially minority women, a platform to explore issues that are unique to their position in society. For example, Jane the Virgin focuses on a threegeneration Latina family in which each mother-daughter relationship tackles complex issues in their family, from perceptions of sex to immigration status concerns. While the show
Today, shows like Jane the Virgin, Gilmore Girls, and The Mindy Project explore the nuances of the female perspective and reinforce the importance of healthy female relationships. While most millennials and gen Z members see this portrayal of female relationships as completely normal and without an attached stigma, we tend to forget how recently healthy female relationships became normalized and encouraged in society. Alison Bechdel provoked discussion about the man-centric depiction of women in the film industry by determining if a work features at least two named women who talk to each other about something other than a man. While most recent fi lms that are at least semi-conscious will tend to follow this rule, at the time of its conception, this rule was anything but followed. For example, even though the film 9 to 5 (1980), directed by Colin Higgins, would typically not pass the Bechdel test as the three women come together due to a common abhorrence of their sexist boss, it was actually quite revolutionary at the time. The notion itself that three women working in the same office could work together to achieve a certain goal began to show a spirit of unity for women in the workplace, one that previously did not exist. In the height of competition between women in the workforce, this film challenged the cultural norm of competition between women in the workforce at the time, even if it existed to discuss a man. 25
masks the severity of these issues with humor, it also addresses more taboo or unspoken issues that are typically swept under the rug in the media. The female protagonists’ viewpoints come from a uniquely female and Latina perspective that is often diďŹƒcult to find in contemporary media, let alone in media from the past couple decades. Another positive representation of minority women happens in The Mindy Project, where the main character, Mindy, a woman of color, is a successful doctor in New York City. Although Mindy’s life often surrounds her romantic endeavors, her career and professional accomplishments are often highlighted as she usually chooses her career over her relationships. In fact, her commitment to her professional passions inhibits developments in her romantic pursuits and eventually results in her divorce. While these shows reflect modern ideology that encourage minority voices, we must remember these current representations symbolize the progress that has been made in media depictions. was anything but followed. For example, even though the film 9 to 5 would typically not pass the Bechdel test as the three women come together due to a common abhorrence of their sexist boss, it was actually quite revolutionary at the time. The notion itself that three women working in the same office could work together to achieve a certain goal began to show a spirit of unity for women in the workplace, one that previously did not exist. By uniting against a common enemy, in this case their sexist boss, to create an introduction into a female friendship, this strategy encourages an
environment in which female friendship is encouraged, rather than frowned upon. In the height of competition between women in the workforce, this film challenged the cultural norm of competition between women in the workforce at the time, even if it existed to discuss a man. In a more contemp orar y example, Sex and the City follows the friendship of four unique women as they explore their friendship, sexuality, and professional pursuits. While the women often discuss their sexuality and romantic lives, they speak about them in a more personal way, one that readjusts how society thinks about personal sexuality as focused less on the male and more on female needs. In this way, Sex and the City breaks down stigmas and barriers to address more taboo topics and reconfigures their
importance for women, setting the stage for even more contemporary shows, like Jane the Virgin, to further contribute to the evolution of depictions of healthy female relationships. 26
By Loree Seitz
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My personal experience with style is complicated. In high school, my friends would tell me it looked like a different person dressed me every day. I would build my outfit around Brandy Melville models and a minimalist t-shirt and jeans one day, then fruit earrings with a hot pink patchwork sweater the next. Ironically, I felt the need to be curatorial in every choice I made that related to the clothes I chose to wear. Oscar de la Renta said, “Fashion is a trend. Style lives within a person.” I thought that in order to have style, my wardrobe not only needed to defy every trend and fad, but also be unique to me as an individual. So, the, “You look like a different person every day,” comments upset me. Did I not have style? Could my style not just be a work in progress, inexorably leading up to the ideal me? Thinking back, it’s clear where all this pressure to have style came from. I would spend hours watching perfectly edited YouTube videos and reading glossy editorials about women in fashion. These women all had impeccable style- and by style I don’t just mean the way that they dressed, but also the manner in which they held themselves, their hobbies, their hairstyles, and the ways in which they decorated their houses. Every aspect of their lives fit together like an aesthetically pleasing, 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle. They could so easily articulate through style exactly who they were. Former Vogue editor, Diana Vreeland, lived in an all red apartment and said things like, “Unshined shoes are the end of civilization.” Who other than her says something like that? Everything about these women was so on brand, and it seemed to me that it had always been like that for them. For example, The Cut wrote about a home video from Leandra Medine’s childhood. In it, she is 8 years old and says, “This is my outfit. Do you like it? If anyone doesn’t… I don’t give a shit!” Medine founded Manrepeller, a blog that encourages women to dress for themselves,
take risks, and to not worry about whether or not men will appreciate their outfits. Her 8 year old self seems to align perfectly with who she is presently, and makes me think that, at least for some, style really is inherent. In stark contrast to Medine’s Upper East Side environment, Dolly Parton grew up in rural Sevierville, Tennessee,. She has songs about wearing a coat made of rags to school. Yet, she too has an iconic sense of style. Her quote, “Figure out who you are. And do it on purpose,” makes style out to be something that is inherent, but also accessible. Is style inside of everyone, just waiting to be discovered? Can anyone, regardless of circumstance, develop a style...but only if they’re willing to put in the work to uncover their own unique take? Perhaps style is inherent, but not in a way that excludes anyone from discovering their own. Style isn’t outwardly and uniformly distributed in a way that expresses this because of the disparity of environments and experiences in individuals’ lives. If style is inside of everyone and is just waiting to be discovered, perhaps feeling like you have the permission to experiment with your style is an important factor to consider. I am willing to bet a young boy or girl wearing a more experimental or “edgy” outfit would feel much more comfortable going to class in a city like New York than a more rural or conservative town. To say that style is an immutable trait that one is either born with or can never acquire is a mildly elitist statement. Most men and women with style, regardless of how fast their taste developed or where they grew up, all have had one thing in common: they were open to the risk and discomfort of fully and outwardly expressing oneself. When anyone allows themselves to be this vulnerable with the rest of the world, regardless of how accepting their part of the world is, style is merely a consequence.
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Let Go and Be
Dragged Gender Bending as Artform
The popularity of drag has exploded in recent years, becoming part of the world of pop culture and celebrity. For the first time in modern history, there is an entire culture of internationally famous drag queens who tour the world with millions of fans waiting for them everywhere they go. This is remarkable for an art form that used to be looked down upon in a world of rigid boundaries and fixed perceptions of gender and morality. The explosion of drag is remarkable, yes, but also important and influential in our continuing dialogue surrounding identity and fluidity in self-expression.
of up-and-coming queens. It also has had a hand in opening up conversations about gender identity and breaking down the strict boundaries surrounding it. On season 9, one queen, Peppermint, revealed to her fellow contestants and the world that she is a transgender woman. In an interview with Out, drag queen Valentina said, “I don’t completely feel like a man, I don’t completely feel like a woman. I feel like a goddess. I feel like I’m my own gender.” Drag gives those who feel confined by the gender binary a way of artistic and creative expression while allowing them to feel comfortable with who they fundamentally are. This is what many “Drag gives those who feel confined by the find so appealing about drag: the openness gender binary a way of artistic and creative of powerful artists who unapologetically expression while allowing them to feel compush traditional societal constructs. fortable with who they fundamentally are.” It’s expanding popularity and reach has transformed drag, not only in its challenge Art is subjective, and the same can be said of social constructs of gender, but also arabout the art of drag. What “is” and “is not” tistically. Newer generations of queens are drag is not as black and white as it may have more easily able to explore various artistic been in in the past. It is a performance art, pathways and elevate the quality of their but no, drag is not simply a cisgendered man drag to develop and execute their own dressed as a woman. Drag is much more. unique aesthetic. Because of this, expecDrag is exaggeration and experimenta“Drag is exaggeration and experimentation tion with gender. Drag is a way to express with gender. a way to express one’s creone’s creativity and identity through perforativity and identity through performance. mance. Drag is inclusive. Anyone can participate. Drag is inclusive.” RuPaul’s Drag Race, a competition series hosted by one of the most famous tations of29drag artists are now higher than drag queens in the world, RuPaul, has large- ever. On the currently airing first season of ly contributed to the increase in popularity. RuPaul’s Drag Race UK, queen Divina De In proving to be highly entertaining, Drag Campo was asked about changing percepRace has launched the careers of hundreds tions of drag. “Everybody wants to be a drag 29
queen these days, everybody. And the bar is so much higher than it ever was,” she said. “[Either] you’ve trained, you cut your teeth, you know what you’re doing, or you don’t. And if you don’t know what you’re doing, you’re not a drag queen.” With each season of RuPaul’s Drag Race, the audience is presented with a vast array of drag aesthetics, showcasing what is currently modern and trendy in the world of drag and what it takes to make a talented queen. Drag is ever-expanding, and queens are taking their art to new levels. In the past, drag typically has been a performance, often lip syncing to songs for cash tips, but it has also taken on in many other forms. There are
drag musicians and recording artists, fashion models and designers, makeup gurus, moguls, actors, stand-up comics, professional impersonators, burlesque dancers, and even wrestlers. Drag artist Marti Gould Cummings has even recently connected her art with politics in her decision to run for New York City Council in the 2021 election. The way that these artists have been able to expand their craft and pursue what they love in a world that may question their work and identities is seriously amazing. Drag has evolved a lot in recent years and shows no signs of stopping. This art, this movement, founded on experimentation, self-expression, and, above all else, inclusivity, promises a lot. It is exciting to look
By Carly Lester
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Evy Edens 4th Year | Media Studies I’ve always envied people who pour their hearts out in their work; who toil endlessly over canvases and create pieces that are evocative of their artist’s state of mind over the course of their conception and execution. But that’s not how I work. I’ve always prioritized aesthetics over emotion. I’m a Virgo sun perfectionist after all. I make art for art’s sake. That’s not to say that I exclusively strive for superficiality, my work always means something to me, but I like to use painting as escapism, so why paint the thing that I’m trying to escape?
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Caleb Briggs 4th Year | English, Studio Art
Thieves
Both of these works are early explorations into making works from found source material. For these particular pieces, I am interested in working within the thematic confines of the original source, while finding a way to either subvert or challenge the source material. The poem and collage piece takes the pre/post stonewall binary of queer history, and adapts it to a personal history of queer existence; more specifically challenging the pre/post coming out binary of queer lives. The found photograph piece was inspired by the jerseys worn by the pictured athletes, which originally read “CHIEFS.� This impelled me to consider issues of cultural appropriation, white supremacy, and what motivates these practices and ideologies. As a sculpture concentration, I am currently thinking of how to make this process adapt into the third dimension. 33
Pre-post
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Bullseye
Victoria Alvarez Fourth Year | Studio Art, Youth and Social Innovation In my works, I mostly find myself drawn towards organic, free-flowing shapes that communicate my natural drive towards play and exploration. These works arise not only from my experimentation with a new medium (gouache paint) and a new style of art, but also from a play with limits. They show the process of finding my own voice in abstract art and learning how to set my imagination free within the confines of one-word prompts or specified color palettes. 35
Shards
Free
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OFfering Alternatives to the tube-top. Welcome to the new age of the late-night outfit, brought to you from the White Spot: the Home of the Gusburger
Counter Point 37
Photographer: Catherine Clark Models: Sonja Bergquist and Aryana Jimenez Creative Directors: Kate Snyder and Kia Wassenaar
