INSTITUTE FOR DOCTORAL STUDIES
IN THE VISUAL ARTS
by Shana Garr Cohort ’22
The Student Alumni Association organized a juried group exhibition to accompany the graduation weekend of festivities. Repair: The Artist-Philosopher in Practice,” curated by Dr. Samantha Jones, PhD 2023, and Dr. Rikeisha Metzger, PhD 2024, was presented in an impressive second-floor space not far from the Morgan Library. A heartening level of collaboration was evident in their plans. Students designed an exhibition catalogue, installed original works, and welcomed the IDSVA community to enjoy food and drinks.
The purpose of Repair is to share expressions of care, a concept whose intent is woven into the ethos of IDSVA. Ultimately, the most memorable part of the exhibition was the experience of the reception in all of its facets. This included the presence of professors whose faces we usually see on screens, treats–including delicious baklava–arrayed on a table, and the mingling energies of dozens of people enthusiastic to reunite, or travel-worn, or curious about when they can sit for dinner, or a bit of all three. Designed as a pop-up, the exhibition was only on view during the reception, and that sense of ephemerality contributed to the scene. I enjoyed chatting with artists while seeing their work hanging just beyond them, and seeing a beautiful series of projected images of art that promoted inclusiveness to members of the IDSVA community who couldn’t travel to New York or courier their work to Manhattan for the event.
A few pieces especially amplified the theme of care. A Thousand COVID-19 Cranes by Heather Dunn, PhD 2014, composed a gorgeous flock that transformed an entire corner. With forty cranes per string, she made one thousand, referencing the belief that doing so within a year will grant a wish from the gods and promote healing. I took snapshots of the cranes from multiple angles, including while laying on the floor. Dunn constructed each crane from face masks while recovering from the eponymous illness, and I hadn’t connected this unique material for art-making while there in person. Remarkably, Dunn found a way to transform the familiar shade of light blue simply by folding them. The surfaces appear variegated, as though each was artisanally hand dyed. Together, they form a screen like a protective force field, with the whimsical drama of a beaded door screen and the accumulation denoting steady, determined labor.
Nandita Baxi Sheth's (PhD 2025), Being Melliferous: Artist-Philosopher Research as a Form of Repair, also activated the concept of screens. Situated in a window overlooking 29th Street, the sheer layers began with a delicate, elaborate botanical drawing. Spectators were invited to interact with the piece to find a host of initially hidden surfaces below, including a circle with painted ochre striations like the surface of Jupiter, schematic, handwritten notes on onion-skin and brown kraft paper. It was for me the best encapsulation of the IDSVA student experience. The layers, multiple viewpoints, and elegantly sprawling, hand-written notes reminded me of the process of writing a dissertation proposal that I just completed that very week. Baxi Sheth’s art included gifts in the form of stickers and beeswax candles. The scent of the candle I selected offered a poetically fragrant memory of the experience when I opened the package at home.
The process of healing is different for everyone. Jacqueline Viola Moulton’s Pity Party 2 is a reminder that love and acceptance of oneself are at the center of care. She painted a lively, carnivalesque scene with a jaunty crescent moon, striped tents, and a community of, in her words, personified feelings–ghouls, skulls, leopards, and more–having a grand time together. A heart burns at the center of the main figure, clad in sweatpants. Bakhtin said the carnivalesque offers a leveling of hierarchies, offering a break from usual hierarchies and ways of seeing the world, a glimpse of which Moulton conjured in this work.
Healing is not always comfortable. Veronika Golova’s (cohort ’21) Lupa was the most memorable sculpture. It is a truncated tube projecting from the wall with a smooth, pearl-like exterior and an interior made with sharp fragments of glass. It was mesmerizing to see this dangerous surface. Of Lupa, Golova said she created something “where remnants do not seek restoration but instead become the foundation for something unforeseen.” Rather than repair, she offers, in her words, “radical emergence,” and the triangulation of Golova’s sculpture, her description of the work, and my experience seeing it could only have been accentuated by additional art.
Lucas Dietsche (cohort ’23) sat in the corner beneath Lupa, reading a paperback. His performance, Reading as Public Art Reimagining Community, was provocative, nestled as it was between two works rather than occupying its own segment of the wall. This was the right move, as Dietsche at first appears like a misplaced wanderer who nevertheless thought it would be a nice place to sit for a while. It didn’t take long to realize that he is a student and it was a work of art, one asserting that, as Dietsche said, “In the presence of others, the act of turning a page is transformed from an internal process into a communal event, revealing the social architecture of interpretation.” The sharp glass of Golova’s Lupa hovered over his head, the works forming an ephemeral diptych bristling with resistance.
Rikiesha Metzger once kindly advised me about the dissertation writing process. She said that continuing her artmaking practice while writing enabled her to complete her dissertation with relative speed. Her contribution, My Family Tree, features an arboreal form with patches populating the branches, circles radiating outward, and rays of light shining below. I enjoyed the dialogue between this illustrative quilt and a shiny pair of shoes (figure 5). It appears, from the shoes’ absence in the catalogue, that this was an impromptu addition. I found it appropriate, as her work alludes to being a world traveler, and artist-philosophers best situate their thoughts where their feet are.
On the way out I waved at Veronika as she departed with her beautiful sculpture.
I encourage you to download the PDF catalogue here to see all of the artwork, accompanied by artist statements.