Art & Art History News - September 1, 2020

Hanna Rose Shell has been invited by Caltech and the Huntington Library to occupy the Eleanor Searle Visiting Professorship and to simultaneously be a long-term fellow of the Huntington Library.  Hanna will occupy the position in October through the end of 2020, during which time she will be teaching a specially-tailored version of her Science on Screen course and participating in seminars at the Huntington. Hanna’s appointment at Caltech and the Huntington Library will continue in the Spring of 2022, when she will be in residence in Pasadena.

Hanna Rose Shell received substantial support for her experimental film High Altitude Observatory: Conversations on the Plurality of Worlds, from the Albert Smith Endowment for Survival in the Nuclear Age (offered through the College of Arts & Sciences). The Albert Smith Nuclear Survival funds will allow her to continue filming in Colorado Rockies next summer.

Recent publication: 
Shoddy: From Devil’s Dust to the Renaissance of Rags (University of Chicago Press), Hanna Rose Shell takes readers on a journey to discover shoddy, from Haiti to the “shoddy towns” of West Yorkshire in England, to the United States, back in time to the British cholera epidemics and the American Civil War, and into agricultural fields, textile labs, and rag-shredding factories. Shell’s narrative is both literary and historical, drawing on an extraordinary range of sources, from court cases to military uniforms, mattress labels to medical textbooks, political cartoons to high art. Shoddy moves between genres, bringing richly drawn characters and unexpected objects to life. Along the way, shoddy becomes equally an evocative object and a portal into another world.

Yumi Janairo Roth has repurposed Sol LeWitt’s 1973, Straight Lines in Four Directions and All Their Possible Combinations for a time of social distancing at Maine College of Art. Sol LeWitt, well known for introducing the idea of instruction-based art, is a founder of conceptual art practice. For the most part, however, his works have existed within the confines of traditional art museums and galleries. Janairo Roth’s project reimagines LeWitt’s works as a new form of instruction, for standing and waiting as well as creating and maintaining spaces between ourselves to keep each other safe.

Straight Lines in Four Directions For Social Distancing (after Sol LeWitt), 2020 is a temporary installation; Roth‘s work, installed in front of MECA now, will wear away with time.

Yumi Janairo Roth has also just been promoted to full professor at the University of Colorado.

Brianne Cohen and her collaborators have launched the Mellon Sawyer Seminar on the Comparative Study of Cultures: “Deep Horizons”.

This Mellon Sawyer Seminar, Deep Horizons: Making Visible an Unseen Spectrum of Ecological Casualties & Prospects, aims to traverse multiple disciplines and perspectives to investigate intersectional questions concerning the changing planet as it affects specific peoples, communities, wildlife species, and ecosystems in varying and inequitable ways.

Throughout 2020-2021, the year-long seminar will be led by faculty from art, biology, cinema, history, indigenous studies, linguistics, sociology, and other departments. Together, the team will invite preeminent scholars and practitioners to CU Boulder and host numerous public events, including panels, lectures, and art exhibitions around the Boulder-Denver area.

Online lectures associated with the seminar are free and open to the public. Please visit the Environmental Futures website for more information and to register for the talks.

Publication presentation at the Siggraph 2020 conference. Published in Leonardo: Volume 53, No. 4 - SIGGRAPH 2020 Art Papers and Mediating Public Space: Art and Technology That Goes Beyond the Frame Art Gallery. Description: "Resonant Waves" is a multisensory, immersive, interactive cymatic art installation/experience. This project reveals the natural phenomenon of sound and vibration as it forms intricate visual geometric patterns in water that are generated in real time through user interaction, while also exploring the effects on our physical, mental, and emotional systems.

Newly appointed Assistant Professor in sculpture and Gallery Director at Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado

The exhibition recognizes the consecutive dates in which all women received the right to vote in America and the complex struggle for universal suffrage today.

The artist collective Pink Progression rose out of the 2017 Womxn's March to inspire social change and explore ideas of feminism, equality, inclusivity, gender identity, unity, and community through creative expression. For Pink Progression: Collaborations, creatives fused their narratives into multidimensional works, ranging from site-specific installations, video, performance, and traditional fine art.

Arvada Center for the Arts and Humanities 
6901 Wadsworth Blvd.
Arvada, Colorado 80003-9985
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