AETERNA VOL 2 - GLAMOUR by Aeterna VASA

AETERNA

Glamour

Visual Arts Supporters’ Association

IN PARTNERSHIP WITH

AETERNA

Glamour Volume 2

2022 VASA

CONTRIBUTORS

CONTENTS

Gorgeous Girl, Hopeless

at ease

The Tragic Poet in Tasso in the Hospital of St. Anna by Eugene Delacroix

Womanhood

Tea, Consciousness

Human

Mindless Divers of the Lagoon

Detective Manchester and the Case of the Silver Otter

Familiarity

My Body

Venus

Siren

Gilding the Mundane

The Eternal Feminine

Respirator, Measuring

Earthquake

Veuve Clicquot

Orchidaceae

Warhol / Red Glasses

Stay Imperfect

The Perfect Cocktail

girls!

Editor in Chief — Ana Moyer Ana Moyer is a first year PhD student in Visual Arts studying tattooing. They have an MA in Art History from Western University and a Bachelors Honours in Art History from the University of Guelph.

Layout Editor — Kenzie Smith Mackenzie is a 5th year, part time BFA student specializing in an Honours Bachelor in Studio Art, and is also currently attending Fanshawe for Graphic Design. They are the Layout Editor for VASA and are in charge of the layout design within Aeterna.

Copy Editor — Sarah Fletcher Sarah is currently in fourth year Art History & Museum Studies at Western. Aside from being VASA’s copyeditor, she is also excited to be interning for Forest City Gallery this year. Her academic interests include participatory art and representations of race and gender in mass media and film.

Gallary Coodinator — Sydney McArthur Sydney, our Gallery Coordinator, is in third year Art History and Museum Studies. She is a portrait artist, but has been focusing more on curatorial work recently. She’s in charge of curating our space for the Aeterna exhibition.

President — Biliquees (Billie) Hafeez Bilquees “Billie” Hafeez is in her final year pursuing a degree in Art History & Museum Studies, and Classics. She is President of VASA and VP Events for AHSC. She aims to create new connections and further our arts community through new events and initiatives reimagined to maintain connections within our department and beyond.

Gorgeous Girl Isabella Springett Date: February 2022 Medium: Multi Media on Stonehenge (44” x 30”) Isabella Springett is 21 years old and lives in Oakville Ontario. She is currenting attaining her Honours Specialization in the Bachelor of Fine Arts program, double majoring in Museum and Curatorial Studies and minoring in Art History. She has been involved in art since a young age, later instructing art classes to children 6+. She was selected for the Queens NUPE exhibit that was showcased early December, 2021. She is currently volunteering for VASA as the Museums Studies Representative and working towards being involved in Western’s community.

Hopeless

at ease Rain Bloodworth Date: January 2022 Medium: Mixed Media on Paper (12” x 19”)

Rain Fenek Bloodworth is in their fourth year at Western completing an Honours Specialization in Studio Art. Rain’s work has been featured in both on-campus and local publications including UWO’s Iconoclast and in the alternative magazines from the Cold Strawberries Collective. They have participated in three group exhibitions; their latest show, Does Not Equate , was shown in the downtown London core at Satellite Gallery in October, 2021. Rain’s work serves to embody the experiences of marginalized identities in their community including queer, neurodivergent or disabled folks, visible minorities, and survivors of abuse. Rain actively participates in local advocacy settings and plans on building a career in art therapy to support the disenfranchised. Mx. Bloodworth can be found @rainbloodworth on Instagram or on their website, rainbloodworth.art. 3

AETERNA GLAMOUR

The Tragic Poet in Tasso in the Hospital of St. Anna by Eugene Delacroix Iraboty Kazi

he famed Italian poet, Torquato Tasso (1544 - 1595) lived and worked in the court of Alfonso d’Este, Duke of Ferrara where he wrote the epic poem, Gerusalemme Liberata (1575). However, his personal life took a tragic turn when he was imprisoned in a hospital for “insanity” under the duke’s orders. While his works were indeed popular from the time of their publication, an interest in his personal life began to develop amongst artists and writers by the late eighteenth century (Sturgis 78). Romantic writers, such as Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Lord Byron, portrayed Tasso as a genius artist who was unjustly imprisoned for being in love with Leonora d’Este, the sister of Alfonso (ibid). Influenced by Byron’s The Lament of Tasso (1817) and his own reading of Tasso’s works as a young student, Eugene Delacroix (1798 - 1863) painted renditions of the subject in 1824

Figure 1: Eugene Delacroix, Tasso in the Hospital of St. Anna (1824)

(Figure 1) and 1839 (Figure 2), both titled Le Tasse a L’hopital Sainte-

Anne de Ferrara [Tasso in the Hospital of St. Anna]. Delacroix’s paintings are not an attempt at a historical depiction of Tasso, instead, they are overtly romanticized versions of the tragic story of the Renaissance poet. Although Delacroix chooses to depict Tasso in confinement in a degrading madhouse, he still elevates the status of the artist through the portrayal of the poet’s abandonment of and by society. The dichotomy between Tasso the chronicler of great events, the glamorous poet of the Este family and Cardinal Aldobrandini and the man who spent half of his adult life in an asylum or a monastery has fascinated the artists who have depicted him over the centuries (Pauly 126). They saw him as a victim of “multiple alienation, of political exile, of psychic and

affective imbalance,” and thought that “this genius was above all walled up in the solitude of his lyric hypersensitivity and the prison of his madness” (ibid). Thus, his personality and mental health issues made Tasso an ideal example of the Romantic notion of the poet. The Romantics thought the “poet was a man endowed with an extraordinary genius who possessed a strong, innate sense of inspiration and an artistic sensitivity stronger than that of common men” (Kadirova). Furthermore, the poet is more than an artistic entity as he is attributed leader-like qualities, thus he is presented as a universal agent speaking to all of mankind (ibid). The Romantic notion of the poet, which Byron influenced greatly, is paradoxical as the poet is at once misunderstood by the common people and is also supposed to speak for them. In addition, Byron’s poem had a direct impact on French 4

artistic responses to Tasso in the following decades (Lawrence 498). Delacroix was emotionally moved and inspired by a French translation of The Lament of Tasso, with the artist sharing Byron’s enraged response to Tasso’s mistreatment: Isn’t Tasso’s life truly interesting? How unhappy that man was! How one is filled with indignation against those unworthy protectors who oppressed him under the pretext of protecting him from his enemies, and who deprived him of his cherished manuscripts! How many tears of rage and indignation he must have shed in seeing that in order to take them from him more certainly they accused him of madness and creative sterility... How his days must have passed with slowness, and what pain still to see them lost fruitless in the cell of a madman! You cry for him: you squirm on your chair just reading about that life; your eyes become threatening, you grit your teeth in anger just thinking about it. (Delacroix 1923, 57 translated by Rebecca M. Pauly in Lawrence 499)

Delacroix is most aggravated by the creative stifling as a result of the Italian poet’s confinement by lesser men. Rather than putting emphasis on the poet’s pain of being physically imprisoned, he seems more affected by the fact that the poet is deprived of his manuscripts, the tool for expressing his creative thoughts. “Delacroix thus found in the figure of Tasso the perfect historic model, who combines intimate personal suffering with political drama and intrigue, and achieves artistic 5

and spiritual grandeur as a martyr who transcends his own historic heroism” (Pauly 126). In the earlier version, Delacroix paints Tasso dressed in Renaissance attire in a stone-wall cell of the madhouse. He is by surrounded three visible figures, while a fourth less visible one lurks in the background. This fourth figure, aged and dressed entirely in black, could be symbolic of death. His placement under the barely visible barred window, a symbol of the freedom taken from the poet, serves as a reminder that the poet’s life and creativity that are being wasted in the prison. The placement and the size of the window are particularly interesting considering Delacroix’s comment about Tasso, made a year prior to the painting: “How he must have worn his head sometimes against those unworthy prison bars, thinking about the corruption of mankind.” (Lawrence 499). The window is painted so small and high that it would be impossible for Tasso to put his head against the bars in the way the artist imagined him doing while reading Byron. Instead, Tasso is facing away from the others in the room as he sits on a chair while his head is reclining on his hand. Delacroix expertly uses chiaroscuro to make it appear as if a light from a mysterious source is reflecting on Tasso and the walls behind him. The light illuminates the poet’s head and top part of his body, which are parts associated with the

mind. The light also illuminates the inmate directly behind him as a reminder of what could become of the poet. The pose of leaning on his right elbow, while deep in thought depicts a sense of renunciation of the world that cannot understand him or his talent. Alfred de Vigny “uses the Horatian phrase ‘profanum vulgus’, a contemptuous reference to non-artists, those not initiated into the service of the Muses. The image of the melancholy poet as a genius misunderstood among his followers – with Tasso as the prime example” (Spector 62). While elegant Delacroix himself was by no means a recluse, the attitude of “proud isolation” was ingrained in him from a young age (ibid). In his fifties, he noted in his journal (14 July 1850) that most men lead mechanical lives but “since they don’t understand the life of the mind, they don’t feel they’re missing anything...they are closer to animal than man” (ibid). Despite its highly elitist nature, Delacroix’s comment does show the Romantic view of the struggle and isolation of the artist for understanding and feeling what the common man cannot. Furthermore, the poet’s reclining pose gains particular significance when considering that it is part of the tradition of Delacroix’s portrayal of other great subjects such as Michelangelo and Sardanapalus. In Michelangelo in his Studio, Delacroix depicts the isolated Renaissance painter sitting in his workshop. While “Michelan-

AETERNA GLAMOUR gelo exemplified the Renaissance ideal of the universal artist, one who excelled in all three of the arts of ‘design’,” what is depicted in the painting is his solitary and melancholy character (Barker, Webb, and Woods 9). While there are two sculptures present, he is not working on them. Moreover, “the chisel on the ground suggests that the great artist may have cast his tools aside in a fit of dejection,” showing the mental anguish involved in the infinitely mysterious creative process (9). The chisel on the floor is reminiscent of Tasso’s piece of parchment on the floor of his cell. He is imagined as an isolated figure of exceptional creative powers who is suffering it his art (8). Delacroix interprets Michelangelo as a “Byronic hero plunged into despair in the midst of his untouched and incomplete creations” (Spector 65). On the other hand, art historian René Huyghe compares Tasso’s sense of renunciation to an actual Byronic hero, Sardanapalus, from his 1821 play with the same name. “For this man, closed in over his own grief, leaning on his elbow, deep in thought, apparently renouncing everything except meditation on the horror or indifference of life, is Tasso, certainly, but also Sardanapalus, the subject of Delacroix’s next large-scale painting (Huyghe 173). In the Death of Sardanapalus, Sardanapalus’s

gesture of limitless detachment caused by the fierce drawing back as he abandons to destruction everything in which he had found pleasure (ibid). Thus, following this Romantic view, the expression of sheer calm on the king’s face as acts of extreme violence takes place infront of him is not a sign of apathy but a defeated contemplation of the cruel world. Although the painting is set in a prison cell of the madhouse, Tasso’s position as a prisoner is only evident in the earlier painting due to the presence of other men who are inmates and possibly a guard holding, but not using, a whip. “Delacroix shared the common Romantic view that Tasso was a persecuted genius unjustly accused of madness, and in this painting, he shows the poet as a lone sane figure surrounded by “uncomprehending lunatics” (Sturgis 78). The calm Tasso is dressed in his black and white fashionable courtly attire as his back is turned to contrastingly more colourfully dressed and dishevelled men as a way of disregarding his surroundings. Thus, the poet, despite the suffering of his present state, maintains an air of dignity. Tasso in the Madhouse can be contrasted to Delacroix’s painting, Ugolino and His Sons

Figure 2: Eugene Delacroix, Tasso in the Madhouse (1839)

in the Tower, which similarly includes an imprisoned historical figure whose story he learnt from a literary source (Dante’s Inferno). However, the painting of Count Ugolino, who was imprisoned with his sons and grandson for treason, tells a story of starvation and degradation. The Renaissance poet may be suffering but he has not surrendered his humanity, which is differentiates him from the traitorous Ugolino who despite his noble status succumbs to hungerand madness. In essence, Tasso’s degradation is not because of his imprisonment but from the confinement of existing in a petty world where people are unable to comprehend the greatness of his work which, in the painting, lies disregarded on the floor, symbolized as a piece of paper. Akin to Tasso’s two versions of his epic poems on Jerusalem, Delacroix created two versions of his painting of Tasso fifteen years apart. “In both versions, the exiled poet is seen battling sickness and depression, at odds with his era, feeling trapped by time and imprisoned 6

AETERNA GLAMOUR in his own body” (Pauly 128). Although the subject, place, and the protagonist’s calm pose are identical, the dissimilarities in the paintings produce different images of the poet’s suffering. In the second version, Tasso appears more dishevelled as he is barefoot and his hair is longer. Gone are his Renaissance garbs, instead he wears a more timeless unbuttoned white shirt. His fellow inmates are no longer in the room, instead, there are curious figures are looking in and pointing to his work. In fact, the setting looks less like a Renaissance prison with its stony walls and more like an intimate room with ripped curtains and style of the sofa that resembles a bed. In the first painting, Tasso appears to be in his own thoughts as he is trapped in a semi-public space, while in the second work, he seems to be trapped in a personal space as the bars of the window separating him from the menacing world. Tasso’s isolation is depicted in both paintings by his separation from the other inmates but in the second one, human communication is symbolically barred as they look at him from outside the window (131). The source of his torture is internalized in the second painting, and he can no longer escape it. “The poet prisoner of powerful external evil now becomes the martyr of his own body (and body of work)” (ibid). Delacroix portrays the figure of the martyred poet through further romanticizing the 7

poet in the latter painting. The light coming from an unseen source illuminates the body of the poet and his work, giving them an ethereal quality. The poet’s exposed chest is reminiscent of the partially or fully nude allegorical figures in his other works. The allegorizing of the poet renders him more accessible to others as his identity becomes more than Tasso, instead he represents the romanticized internal struggle of the misunderstood genius trapped in a society that he considers to be full of mediocrity. Filtered through time, being passed on from one artist or language to another, the story of Torquato Tasso went through many metamorphoses. For the Romantics, he transformed from a famed Renaissance poet to a tragic hero who is both a misunderstood man suffering in prison and the artistic genius presented as being superior to others. While the idea of the (White male) genius artist is problematic, Delacroix’ two paintings and writing on Tasso provide an insight into Delacroix of himself as an artist and his place in society.

Works Cited Barker, Emma, Nick Webb, and Kim Woods. The Changing Status of the Artist. New Haven: Yale UP, 1999. Huyghe, René. Delacroix. London: Thames and Hudson, 1963. Kadirova, Berna. “The Romantic Notion of the Poet: A Creator of National Identity and a Leader to His People.” New Bulgarian University. N.p., n.d. Web. <http://www.nbu.bg/ PUBLIC/IMAGES/File/ departamenti/4ujdi%20ezitsi%20 i%20literat uri/34.pdf>. Lawrence, Jason. “’When Despotism Kept Genius in Chains’: Imagining Tasso’s Madness and Imprisonment, 1748-1849.” Studies in Romanticism 50.3 (2011): 475503. Pauly, Rebecca M. “Baudelaire and Delacroix on Tasso in Prison: Romantic Reflections on a Renaissance Martyr.” College Literature 30.2 (2003): 120-36. Spector, Jack J. Delacroix: The Death of Sardanapalus. London: Penguin, 1975. Sturgis, Alexander. Rebels and Martyrs: The Image of the Artist in the Nineteenth Century. London: National Gallery, 2006.

AETERNA GLAMOUR

Trapp, Frank Anderson., and Eugène Delacroix. The Attainment of Delacroix. Baltimore: John Hopkins, 1971.

Biography Iraboty (Ira) Kazi (she/her) is a PhD candidate at the University of Western Ontario, studying Art History and Visual Culture. Her current research explores how spaces presented in Italian Renaissance pastoral paintings are reconfigured and mobilized in constructions of nature in queer cinema. Her research interests include South Asian diasporic art, literature, cinema, Dante studies, stained glass windows, queer cinemaand theory, Renaissance and Baroque visual cultures, imagined spaces, and decolonial art. Figure 3: Eugene Delacroix, Self Portrait (1837)

Womanhood Chloe Serenko Date: December 2021 Medium: Textile Sculpture; Charcoal and Paper (68" x 40" x 38")

Chloe Serenko (she/ they), more well known to others as ‘Chloe’ or ‘Chloenko’, is a 19 year old Fine Arts student specializing in experimental work using a variety of mixed mediums. She is a Canadian artist from the small town of Bowmanville, Ontario. Currently, they are attending their second year at Western University, completing her Honors Specialization BFA in Studio Art.

She dedicates herself to her practice by commission and personal works, sharing her artwork on social media sites. Chloe’s goal for their future is to continue learning about art while improving her technical and conceptual skills, eventually becoming a successful contemporary artist and entrepreneur.

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Consciousness Emma Semple Date: February 2022 Medium: Silkscreen on Arnhem (9” x 8.25”) 3/4/22, 1:39 PM

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Emma Semple is a 4th-year undergraduate student, completing a BFA in Creative Literature at Brescia University College and a BFA in Studio Arts at Western. She fell in love with printmaking while attending the BealArt program at H.B. Beal Secondary School, and that love has only grown while progressing through her university career. Her body of work of the last six months has been based in silkscreen printing and centers around ideas of meaning and how meaning can be conveyed using the symbolism of flowers. Much of her work revolves around taking a closer look at the https://drive.google.com/ﬁle/d/1Pmk6GGL0BsMGZpoBpi-1-PWIDVr0Igex/view

complex emotions associated with self, sexuality, and various relationships. She hopes that using flowers to convey meaning allows the audience to add to the ever-growing narrative (and yes, a pun). Tea that Layer 3 was (Final) - Emma Semple.JPEG

3/4/22, 1:39 PM

Tea Date: February 2022 Medium: Silkscreen on Arnhem (9” x 8.25”)

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Human Sawyer Shin Date: 2021 Medium: Acrylic on Canvas (14” x 11”)

Sawyer Shin was born in South Korea and raised in the Songdo area for the first 18 years of life. Growing up with both parents in the arts field (mother in English literature and writing, father in visual arts, sculpting, ceramics, and carpentry), he was always exposed to artistic endeavours and art pieces decorated all throughout their house. Inspired by being constantly surroinded by art, he was always interested in the arts and creating drawings, imaginary cities, even countries, automobile brands, and products. Attending Chadwick International for high school, he graduated as the class of 2021. Pursuing visual arts privately and in IB arts classes and university courses, he now attends the University of Western Ontario in the Fine Arts Honours Specialization in Visual Arts for class of 2025. Shin is inspired by the non-human forms. He uses this inspiration of manmade objects (being born and raised in the city) and shapes of nature to create a geometric visualization of the human face. In this figurative piece, he explores the impact of lighting on geometric shapes and colours as a seemingly floating mask.

Mindless Divers of The Lagoon Chidimma Nwaokoro Date: December 2021 Medium: Acrylic on Canvas (10” x 12”)

Venus Nwaokoro is a full-time first-year student at Western University, pursuing a BFA in Studio Art. She was born July 17th, 2003, and is of Nigerian, Israeli, and Polish descent. She discovered her love for art at an early age. She explored this passion through elementary school and became more involved with the arts in high school with the help of available art courses. She experimented with many mediums to find that she most enjoyed painting, drawing, and clay/ceramic work. She has not yet found her style but continues to work towards it. Due to Covid regulations, there are no past experiences such as exhibitions and showings, as it was in recent years, she created works she felt fit to share. Previous opportunities were cancelled; however, Venus is looking forward to the many opportunities that the future holds. Venus’ work has been included in the third issue of Pitch Magazine, a magazine that celebrates black expression. She looks forward to her future and the future of her art. She hopes to spread inspiration, creativity, and wonder with her work. Venus views art as one of the best forms of expression and loves the idea of turning the smallest thoughts into physical forms for people to see.

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AETERNA GLAMOUR

Detective Manchester and the Case of the Silver Otter

Asia Porcu Detective Manchester and the Case of the Silver Otter is a creative piece that parodies the genre of glamorous detective thriller. Likewise, the short story pokes fun at institutions and practices typically associated with a glamorous lifestyle: associations with royalty, art collection, mansion-style estates, and French butlers.

REVIOUSLY, in

Detective Manchester and the Case of the Silver Otter. Detective Manchester knelt in front of the Queen, who was busy stirring her tea with the tip of her index finger. “You must go to Westchester and search for the killer. The victim was my good friend. The Crown seeks justice.” “I’ll do it Your Majesty,” said Manchester, taking the Queen’s hand, still dripping tea, between her own. “As you know, Unwavering Patriotism is my middle name.” *** VOLUME TWO: Detective Manchester sat in the middle of the drawing room at Westchester Manor, the home of the victim. Her 15

notebook lay in one hand, a fountain pen in the other, and in front of her stood the butler. He was a Frenchman, with a French nose and also a very French moustache. His name was Jean-Phillipe Frenette - if that gives any indications about his character. Equipped with a cleaning rag and a bucket of silver polish, Jean-Phillipe began to speak, cycling through knives and spoons and forks as he did so. “Mr SnickerdashFredikopolous was acting strange for about a week before the party. As you know he was killed the night after, in a most gruesome manner. Apparently, the killer even wrote the words: “Haha this is so gruesome wow I didn’t realize this would be so messy” on the wall with his blood.” Raising an eyebrow, Manchester motioned for the Butler to elaborate. Jean-Phillipe traded in his table knife for an elaborate carving knife the size of his forearm. “He said things... how he thought he saw someone standing outside his room in the middle of the night. He was also very adamant that it wasn’t a ghost. We’ve had a ghost problem in this manor before – Mr SnickerdashFredikopolous cycled through fifty-two different exorcists, until we realized that a vent from the servant’s toilets leads all the way up to the top floor, and the ghastly moaning we had been hearing was really the Cook -” “Alright, alright!” Manchester made a note in her notebook. “Did Mr S-F have any enemies?” Shrugging, Jean-Phillipe began rubbing a gigantic silver machete with his rag until it squeaked. “No, Mr Snickerdash-Fredikopolous was generally beloved by the people of Westchester. Except for that time when they tried to vote him into exile. And the time the teenagers covered the manor in one-hundred-thirteen eggs. Oh and of course the time he was chased out of town by a mob with torches and pitchforks. Other than that, I would say he was quite popular.” “Was Mr S-F a naturally paranoid person?” Now polishing a two-handed broadsword, the butler frowned. “No of course not, why would you say that?” “Who was home the night Mr S-F was killed?” Jean-Phillipe raised a thoughtful finger to his chin, before beginning to drag his rag over a chrome handgun, taking it apart with ease. “That would be myself, the

Jean-Phillipe?” The gardener took that as his cue to shuffle out of the room, his galoshes squeaking like bagpipes as he went. “It’s ‘Jean-Phillipe’,” said Jean-Phillipe, trading in his crossbow for a harpoon gun, “and as the Butler of this house, I have my sources.” “Let me guess, a little birdy told you?” “Why, yes,” surprise flickered over Jean-Phillipe’s fantastically French features, “but how did you know the stableboy’s name was Little Birdy? You haven’t been introduced.” nombre es Edith Manchester, Sighing, detective estoy investigando el asesinato Manchester opened her de su Jefe.” notebook once more, checking “What’s that?” Said the the gleaming face of her Mickey gardener, in a strong Scottish Mouse Rolex as she did so. She accent. “I’m sorry lass, I don’t should be home, settling down speak no Portuguese.” “Detective Manchester, if with a Cuban cigar, a finger you please,” Jean-Phillipe broke of whiskey, and an episode of in, his moustache quivering Gilmore Girls on the television. with indignation as he picked If only her middle name wasn’t up a reinforced crossbow, Unwavering Patriotism. If only “None of us could have possibly she didn’t secretly want to have viciously beat Mr Snickerdash- sex with the Queen. If only Fredikopolous over and over, the Queen didn’t know that watching his skull cave in until she secretly wanted to have sex all his blood drained out of his with her, and was using that body, leading to his untimely fact to manipulate Manchester demise.” to her every whim – the naughty bitch. Aha, thought Just as she was about to Manchester, flipping her end her inquiry, Manchester notebook closed, I have him caught sight of an exquisite now. “How did you know Mr portrait hanging over the S-F was bludgeoned to death, gardener, the cook, three maids, the stableboy, and Mr Snickerdash-Fredikopolous’ private chauffeur, Bob.” At that moment, in a flash of thunder and a rumble of lightning, the gardener appeared. Around seven feet tall, he towered over the drawing room, casting them all in an eerie shadow, his overalls suspiciously stained. Clutched in one hand was a pair of shears the size of a tall toddler. Detective Manchester hid her shock with a sweep of her pen. “So this is the gardener? Hola señor. Me

mantlepiece. Pictured was Mr Oddo SnickerdashFredikopolous himself. He was wearing a cloak of draped furs and an Adidas tracksuit, and was surrounded by no fewer than eighteen otters, all donning tiny monocles and bowties. “Beautiful, isn’t it,” Jean-Phillipe sniffed, “Entirely unique. Mr SnickerdashFredikopolous commissioned it himself. That painting is one of the least expensive pieces in this house. He was a great collector of art, our employer.” Renewed, Manchester tapped the tip of her pen against the page. “Monsieur Frenette, how many guests did Mr S-F have at his party the night before?” “Six,” said Jean-Phillipe, hoisting a bazooka onto the spotless shoulder of his suit. “M Clipper, his barber; Miss Lucy Wealthville, an heiress; Madam Wealthville, her aunt; Officer Ham, the chief of police; Professor Plum, no relation to-” “Of course.” “And Mr Malvado, McMalvado, his personal friend.”

“I see,” said Manchester, “And are you entirely certain all of them left the manor after the party Friday night?” “Quite certain.” JeanPhillipe was rubbing his bazooka with fervour. Manchester removed a pack of Marlboro cigarettes from the inside pocket of her suit jacket. As she lit one, the flare from her engraved lighter embossed her features in a Dramatic GlowTM. “How can you be sure none of them stayed behind, hidden in the house?” There was a pause, and Jean-Phillipe’s ever-moving polishing rag came to a feeble stop. “I can’t say.” “Why not?” “I would tell you,” Jean-Phillipe shook his head, lowering the bazooka, “but the submission guidelines said no more than six pages.” “What’s that?” Sighing, Jean-Phillipe motioned a hand towards the door. “Are we done here? I need to go wax the tank.” Manchester stood, putting out her cigarette. “I’ll accompany you, if you please.” Jean-Phillipe led the way through the gold-painted halls of the manor, his loafers leaving foreshadowing-like traces of polishing oil on the carpet. The butler hadn’t been lying about Mr S-F’s predilection for collecting art. Around every 17

corner there seemed to be another sculpture, or painting. They passed a bronze plated Homer Simpson, Venus de Milo with the head of Chris Rock, and a photographic collection of an assortment of elbows. Crossing by a tapestry of a bunch of Satyr’s worshipping a giant Croc, Manchester spotted something important. “Hold on a moment, dear chap.” Kneeling, she lifted up a corner of the tapestry, unveiling, to her confirmed suspicions, an enormous splatter of blood. There was a beat. “That’s decoration.” Jean-Phillipe said. *** NEXT TIME, in

Detective Manchester and the Case of the Silver Otter: Femme Fatale #3 was crying, mascara running down her face in clumpy rivulets as she hurled one strappy stiletto, and then the other at Detective Manchester. Manchester, catching both shoes deftly, one in each hand, called out after her. “Don’t!” Sobbed Femme Fatale #3, her pink cocktail dress swirling around her seductive thighs. Underneath she had eight knives strapped

to her garters, a fact Detective Manchester knew all too well. “How would you feel if I wrote your next story? I’ll call it Detective Manchester and The Search for Her Fragile Ego!” FIN Biography

Asia Porcu is a third year student completing an Honour Specialization in Creative Writing and English Language and Literature with a Major in Film Studies. Asia has had three poems and a short fiction published in Symposium, as well as a short fiction published in Occasus. Although Asia is a part-time detective parody enthusiast, she is primarily interested in the queering of traditional genre conventions.

Familiarity Emma Lee Date: December 2021 Medium: Oil on Canvas (11” x 14”)

Emma is a nineteen year old artist from Cambridge, Ontario. She is in her first year of the Studio Art program at Western University. She most frequently works with oil paint and utilizes various subject matter. She is primarily self-taught and was encouraged to create art growing up, as she comes from a family of artists. She has attended various figure and life drawing classes as well. She started practicing tattooing within the last year and hopes to work as a tattoo artist in the future. Currently, she spends her time working on school and commission work.

My Body Cosette Gelenas Date: November 2021 Medium: Linocut on Arnham (22” x 15”)

Cosette Gelinas is a student in her fourth year completing the Honours Specialization - Bachelor of Fine Arts in Studio Art at the University of Western Ontario, and is part of this year’s Visual Arts practicum class. Her work has been shown at exhibitions in London, Ontario in galleries such as the Satellite Gallery, Artlab Gallery, and Cohen Commons Gallery, as well as in Goderich, Ontario at the Goderich Co-op Gallery. Her art practice focuses mostly on selfreflection through art-making. She expresses her personal thoughts, feelings, or memories into images through various media including acrylic painting, mixed media drawing, or relief printmaking. She often focuses on themes of memory, identity, anxieties, and femininity. Through these themes, she takes inspiration from her physical body, the spaces she inhabits, and often explores her subject matter figuratively or through self-portrait. Visually, she enjoys playing between the line of representation and abstraction. She

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breaks down aspects of her work into shapes, patterns, and textures while staying close to reality but simultaneously creating a space that is more surreal, dreamlike, or escapist. 19

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“The intention for these images is to display a sense of tension between the use of colour and gesture to communicate a sense of personal conflict which occurs when thinking about self image, especially for women. The societal pressures for women to present themselves in a certain way is constantly criticized. It does not matter if a woman presents herself as confident and sexy or as humble and modest, she will always be judged. The “cut off” parts of the body are also meant to speak to the objectification of women, as the constant sexualization of the female body remains an issue in our society.”

My Body 2

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Venus

Delaney Philip Date: 2021 Medium: Textile (16” x 22”)

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Delaney Philip is a Canadian artist in her fourth year of study at Western University. She is currently completing her Bachelor of Fine Arts, Honours Specialization in Studio Art. Delaney’s art practice explores the creation of figures that could not exist in real life, for her the line between realism and nonexistent figures rests on her use of distortion, abstraction, and saturated colours. Throughout Delaney’s practice she explores feminine identity and the challenges she’s faced growing up in a world where women are constantly sexualized and critiqued. Delaney’s colourful art style allows her to capture the beauty of female figure without the hyper-sexualization and perfection we see in the media. Delaney’s work has been featured in the Annual Juried Exhibition of 2020 and 2022. She also had the opportunity to put on a group exhibition with three other women artists in the Cohen Commons Gallery titled Eden in 2021.

his piece, Siren, talks about using the perceptions of others against them. The figure is meant to represent a siren - seen as beautiful, they lured sailors to their deaths. Bits he myth of the siren can be seen hidden around the work.

Siren Meaghan Smith Date: March 2019 Medium: Ink & Watercolour on Wood (20” x 20”)

“This piece, Siren, talks about using the perceptions of others against them. The figure is meant to represent a siren - seen as beautiful, they lured sailors to their deaths. Bits of the myth of the siren can be seen hidden around the work.”

Meg Smith is a fourth-year student in Western’s BFA, honour’s specialization program. They work in mixed media and enjoy working with elements such as line, texture, and colour to create their works. Materially, they experiment with media such as cardboard, craft supplies, and found and second-hand materials. This physical sense of exploration is very important to them as the process of feeling the materials that they are working with both physically and visually is part of the work itself. The work that Meg creates is often introspective, striving to create pieces that could help others who are also challenged by their identities to dig deeper and find their own answers within them. A common characteristic of their artwork is a combination of the human form with natural subject matter in works that can be seen as aesthetically pleasing but show darker themes when examined further. In the past, Meg’s work has been a part of two exhibitions; Lost Within Limits and Does Not Equate, both at the Satellite Gallery Space in London, and is set to be involved in the upcoming show Ante Miridiam at the Artlab Gallery.

Gilding the Mundane Aidan Takeda-Curran Date: 2022 Medium: Installation, Paper (12” x 18”)

Aidan Takeda-Curran is a fourth year Visual Arts BFA student with a secondary major in Anthropology. Over the course of his degree he has participated in a dozen exhibits ranging from sales and juried exhibits, to large and small group shows. The University of Western Ontario’s department of Neuroscience has obtained a piece for loan in their offices created in collaboration with a graduate student from the department. Their work has been published through a Canadian Art publication and a group art book produced in conjunction with the 2021/2022 practicum class. He has served in a curatorial role for five exhibits, four of which were a collaborative curation effort, and the fifth a curation in partnership with another artist. Finally, he earned five awards relating to the arts, one for his art writing at the Western Gazette, the Mackie Cryderman Award for Excellence in Visual Arts, two awards at the Annual Juried Exhibit (‘19/’20) and most recently, first place at the Society of Neurology Graduate Students second annual art show.

The Eternal Feminine

Jackqueline Lian Date: January 2022 Medium: Watercolour on Watercolour Paper (11” x 14”)

Jacqueline Lian is a second year Visual Arts student at Western University. She is currently pursuing a double major in art history/studio art and health science. With an interest in creating and an eye for detail, Jacqueline started taking art lessons at a young age. Built on a background in Chinese Watercolour and Impressionist oil painting, she unites the traditions of realism with the freedom of modernism. As she explores the relationship between the contrasting art styles, Jacqueline often depicts landscapes and portraits compact with vibrant colours. She specializes in watercolour and oil painting — occasionally dabbling in intaglio and silkscreen printmaking. In the past year, her prints have been displayed at the Cohen Commons Gallery. Jacqueline is interested in the intersections of science and art, with her recent project being a digital artwork set to be exhibited at Western’s Neuroscience Research Day. 24

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Holly Granken Date: October 2021 Medium: Digital Photography (11” x 22”) Holly Granken discovered her love of photography when she picked up a manual film camera for the first time while attending the BealArt program here in London. Now, many years later as a 4th year student earning her Honours Specialization in Studio Art and Art History degree, with a minor in photography, her love of the medium has only gotten deeper. Her approach is journalistic as she represents her subjects as they really are with minimal post production editing. She began exhibiting her photos in the zines The Freeps and The Nine published by friends in the London art scene. Her portraits of pets were also featured in a total of three different animal magazines, with her portrait of her late cat, Taiki, gracing the cover of I Love Cats Magazine in 2011. In 2012 she did the promotional photography for the short-lived Aerie Theatre Company’s Of Some Importance, and earned a byline in the London Free Press for one of her images that accompanied their review of the production. In 2013, her worked placed second in Bijan Art Studio’s Juried Show, and in 2014 she earned another byline in the Free Press for her promotional images for Ladies Room, that ran during the Fringe Festival. In 2020 she shared an exhibition with her fellow classmates in the Artlab Gallery entitled ...And on That Day, I Went For a Walk, and in 2021 had a solo exhibition in the Artlab Vitrine gallery called Ikinuki: to Relax, to Take a Breather. 1/1

“The word “glamour” conjures up images of people, usually women, dressed in expensive clothes, with flawless makeup and not a hair out of place. It’s celebrities on the covers of magazines, or movie stars from the early days of Hollywood. We see these people made to look perfect and it’s what so many aspire to, but it’s simply not real. I wanted to show glamour in real life, with a real person, at her real job to illustrate the worth of her path and the worth of real people. Those who get up every day, go to work, grind it out for nowhere near enough money, come home, and do it all over again the next day are even more deserving of admiration. Glamour is ultimately an illusion, a lie, and there is no beauty in lies. Beauty is instead, in the truth.”

Measuring

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Earthquake Bridget Koza Date: 2022 Medium: Acrylic on Canvas (10” x 10”)

“Earthquake relates to the social pressures that are placed on celebrities or people with a strong following to be constantly flawless and glamourous. In Bridget’s work the rocks represent the glamourous figures who are constantly trying to maintain this perfect persona when things are going horribly wrong in their life. The Beryl rock placed in the middle of the split in the broken shelf communicates this narrative of holding it together so no one sees you crumble. These rock on display in a museum case also represents how glamorous people are are always on display and under surveillance via social media. The reason Bridget chose to place the 9 canvases in a 3x3 format is to comment directly on the Instagram grid aesthetics, and unwritten social rule that popular people must have a pleasing feed grid. It is a known fact, however that rocks are hard to break, meaning no matter how hard the earth shakes their existence is still prominent.” Bridget is in her 3rd year at Western double majoring in SASAH and Visual Arts with a minor in Spanish. She is the current Vice President Communications for the Arts and Humanities Students’ Council, a digital media designer for Western Technology Services and a freelance artist. Most of her artwork can be found in other Western University publications, such as ICONOCLAST COLLECTIVE and AHSC Publication, as well on her website: www.kozart.ca

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Sebastian Evans is a painter working in London Ontario. His work deals with themes of anxiety, COVID-19, inequity and precarity, as well as the ongoing environmental crisis. He works in a liminal space between representation and abstraction, employing as many different physical media as he can manage. Sebastian will exhibit a collection of work from the past two years at his first solo show, at Strand Fine Art Services, London. The show is entitled Start as You Mean to go on. It ran for the entire month of February.

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Sebastian Evans Date: January 2022 Medium: Mixed Media (16” x 20”)

Orchidaceae Stephanie Fattori Date: January 2022 Medium: Pencil Crayon (22” x 30”) “While this may seem like a simple drawing of a flower, it holds great significance to me. It is drawn from an orchid plant I bought for my mother’s birthday this past January. Even amid a new lockdown, while everything in the world felt so uncertain, we were able to find beauty and joy in this flower and a celebration. I spent the rest of January finishing this drawing, it was a project that I loved to go back to, because even though winter was cold and dark, this drawing was beautiful and reminded me of time spent with family and surrounded by love. This drawing is glamorous because this flower is beautiful and represents my mom who is the most glamorous person I know.”

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Stephanie Fattori is a fourth year student at Western completing an Honours Specialization in Art History and Museum Studies with a minor in French and a certificate in Studio Arts. She has always had a passion for visual art and has been creating her entire life. Drawing is her preferred medium, however she has practiced painting extensively while at university and has experimented with printmaking and sculpture. She is inspired by visual cues and events in her life, many of her works are scenes from her home and travel. By translating everyday moments of her life onto paper she is making ordinary scenes extraordinary. Stephanie is an active member of the arts community here at Western, she has been part of Art and Humanities Student Council since her first year, and has worked with Museum Studies Collective and Public Art Commission. Stephanie has exhibited at the ArtLab in the past in the Annual Juried Exhibition and has her work in countless publications on campus such as Iconoclast, AHSC’s Publication and Museum Studies Collective. Most recently she has been working as the Layout Editor for AHSC’s publication team and exhibited her work at Western’s NeuroScience Research Day at their Brain Art Exhibit.

Warhol / Red Glasses Darcy McVicar Date: February, 2020 Medium: Mixed (16” x 20”)

Darcy is a 4th year mature student in the Honours Fine Art, Studio program. Darcy’s favourite artists include Andy Warhol, Ai Weiwei, Banksy and Sarah Sze. Darcy feels that successful pieces of art pull people close, and make them look for a story as their eyes follow hidden paths. Darcy uses hidden trinkets and “easter-eggs”https://drive.google.com/ﬁle/d/1Y61 undocumented surprises in his pieces. Grains of sand from the beach he grew up on add texture to his oils and https://drive.google.com/ﬁle/d/1WcUMRnbLr0SwbVvZBFxdnxT5Qz3ZeUad/view acrylics, splashes of wine from his favourite wine region in Chile mix into his watercolours and glazes on every piece. 29

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Megan Man Nga Ting Date: February 4 2022 Medium: Collage (9” x 12”) “When we think of glamour, most of the words that come to mind are “seductive,” “gorgeous,” “sexy,” “stylish,” “perfect,” and so on. But who rules that charm is only these looks? Our own imperfection is also a kind of charm, and imperfection can also be a kind of beauty. To appreciate imperfect people and1/1 things with perfect eyes. Your imperfection is actually the unique charm.” 30

The Perfect Cocktail Isabella Bruni Date: December 2021 Medium: Graphite (30” x 22”)

Isabella Bruni is currently completing her Bachelor of Fine Arts at Western University, specializing in studio art. Born in Toronto, Ontario, Isabella is 20 years old, and her artistic style covers a wide range of disciplines including drawing, painting, print media, photography, and graphic design. Her plans after completing her bachelor’s degree are still unknown; however, her current interests include fashion and interior design as well as studio practices. She recently started an Instagram account to showcase her work which has gained over 100 followers. Besides a few commissions, Isabella is just beginning to branch out and display her work. She hopes to sell more of her artwork, specifically her prints while also showing her paintings in exhibitions as time progresses. Her current goal is to experiment in as many different artistic disciplines as possible while also enhancing her skills and knowledge.

girls! Hilary Rutherford Date: November 2021 Medium: Acrylic (25” x 38”)

Hilary Rutherford is a 20-year-old artist from Windsor, Ontario. She is currently studying Psychology at Western University and pursuing a minor in Studio Art. Hilary primarily works with acrylic paint and commonly produces work consisting of collage. Through collage, Hilary is able to compose one image through the connection of various elements. She tends to paint on raw canvas and piece together her work using hot glue. For some pieces, she incorporates other materials, such as blankets and netting. she enjoys breaking away from the traditional canvas by creating work that is more organic and imaginative. Hilary draws inspiration from friends and family. Since she began painting in 6th grade, she has always been interested in abstract figures, specifically faces. Now, she enjoys creating figurative work that features both herself and people in her everyday life. Her paintings seem to present familiar settings but with inventive qualities. Although the context tends to consist of everyday activities, like sleeping, using the bathroom, cooking, and being outside, the figures are what gives her work a unique quality. Her earliest inspirations were artists Chella Man and Bryant Giles, who also showcase figurative yet abstract work. Hilary enjoys using bold colours; in the past, she has leaned towards primary colours, although this year, she has shown to expand her colours through using a more diverse and large palette. 32

Visual Arts Supporters’ Association