Joseph Serrata /The Collegian
By Jill Bold/reporter
The Carillon Gallery on South Campus hosts “The Whole World Was Not Accessible to My Gaze,” featuring the artwork of 17 artists based in U.S. and Russia, and curated by Francesca Altamura of New York and Lizaveta Matveeva of St. Petersburg, Russia.
Joshua Goode, South art department chair, collaborated with these curators to bring these works of art together.
“It’s pretty amazing we’re able to get curators of this reputation,” Goode said.
He said many artists seek to exhibit their art primarily in New York.
The art department hopes to entice international artists to look at Dallas and Fort Worth as a venue to showcase their work for the students and art patrons of the metroplex.
Absurdism is present in every piece exhibited, as a theme explored by artists in Soviet times to combat “Soviet censorship.”
“Absurdity is not a new or novel concept, it’s the essential nature of self-awareness,” artist Adam Lehrer said in his essay written for the exhibit.
Today’s modern society parallels this in the exhibit, which is a reflection of the same type of oppression thought to be found in modern-day, free-market capitalism.
“The absurdity of the times, and comparing how that is being mentally processed by people in Russia and in the United States,” Goode said about what these artists are portraying.
“Sinister realities in both America and Russia have forced the participating artists to construct subtle ways of resisting, operating and thriving within the shadows,” Altamura and Matveeva said.
Curators Altamura and Matveeva penned an analysis of this exhibit.
Joseph Serrata /The Collegian
“Absurdism was used as a political strategy, which operated in opposition to traditional and conservative literature of the time,” Altamura and Matveeva said in their analysis.
A wide variety of media art, from etchings, embroidery, videos, paper and ink, cotton, acrylic, digital print on fabric and a vinyl record adorn the stark-white walls and sterile concrete floors of the gallery.
Students are invited to play “White Castle Red List of Might and Magic,” a video game, which was satirized by the artist Dagnini, and displayed as a video parody.
Dagnini and many others enjoyed playing this popular game during their youths.
The internationally recognized exhibit runs Monday through Thursday 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Aug. 2-Sept. 12.
