Preoccupations, a public exhibition of works by members of the inaugural class of the MFA in Experimental and Documentary Arts (MFAEDA) will be on view starting Thursday, April 19th, in the Corridor Gallery of the East Duke building on Duke’s East Campus.
Preoccupations
Opening Reception: Thursday, April 19th, 5-7pm
East Duke building, Duke East Campus, 1304 Campus Drive
For a searchable map, click on http://www.maps.duke.edu
A preoccupation; an absorption, engrossment, something that holds the attention.
Seven of the first MFA in Experimental and Documentary Arts students examine their preoccupations and the preoccupations of those around them.
Eric Barstow exhibits two video works which deal with the preoccupation of self-image. Living within a society so driven by the images in films, television, the web, etc., has made many feel the need to ensure their own image is at its best. But what does this entail?
Marika Borgeson exhibits an exploration of paper and light.
Wolfgang Hastert exhibits selections from JUXTAPOSSE, a series of juxtaposed portraits of Duke University faculty and the MFA EDA student cohort.
Annabel Manning exhibits a video work exploring train as eye as surveillance between Durham and Charlotte.
Lisa McCarty exhibits photographs taken at Lacock Abbey, the home of William Henry Fox Talbot. Both site and subject of the first photographic negative, the Abbey is hallowed ground in the history of photography and became a point of pilgrimage for McCarty.
Laurenn McCubbin exhibits a series of portraits in watercolors and in video titled Intimate, part of her larger work The Intimacy Project, a series of interviews with sex workers exploring the idea of “performative emotionality”. In the video, the object of the gaze looks back – the odalisque observes the viewer. Is the emotion being performed? Reflected? In this long portrait, the sex worker invokes a moment that might either be genuine or contrived.
Talena Sanders exhibits a video portrait of a man with a singular message for the Las Vegas art world.
Preoccupations is made possible in part with generous support from the Department of Art, Art History and Visual Studies.
