josh haze : exit!

I went to the senior exit show the other day to see the works of the graduating art students, i enjoyed many of the pieces however the only one that drew me into really looking at it was Marcy's series about Emmit till/Mathew Sheppard. this piece really grabs my attention both the portrait of the young boys and the descriptions of their brutal murders. it seems to me that a large amount of art is meant to be pretty so people will hang it on their walls, although very well executed i feel that these pieces are not pretty they are vile and i would never wish to display it in my home, to me art is about snapping people out of their happy little lives and showing them reality. i feel that Marcy's pieces out of all the seniors accomplished that, i could not hang this piece in my house because i would either be filled with anger, hate, loathing, disgust, etc. every time i saw it or i may become desensitized to it which would be the worst possible outcome and the exact opposite of what i feel the intentions of the piece were.

the story of Emmit till is pretty well know but forgotten in most peoples in their every day life, however the attitudes that led to it have yet to truly change, like the boys that killed Mathew Sheppard (featured in the other half of this piece ) or those that killed Luis Ramirez here in Pennsylvania, the glaring difference is see is that Sheppard's murderers are in prison, tills murderers were acquitted by an all white jury and Ramirez' s murders were found not guilty again by a all white jury. so not much has truly changed in this "post race Amerikkka" justice is still reserved only for whites. the story of Mathew Sheppard is less know yet still very important, he was beaten robbed and left tied to a fence to die, he was found 18 hours later still alive but in a coma, he died 5 days later. however the most painful part of this piece for me is the portrait of till, a 14 yr old black boy, when i see Marcy's piece i see my nephew Zion a 2 yr old black boy who i hope will never be the victim of racism/ discrimination. however i am not overly optimistic because our nation has a long history of hate. that is him and my dad in the picture above.

i feel that in these pieces Marcy wanted to show that racism and homophobia are two sides on the coin of hate and intolerance. she accomplished this goal extremely well these pieces and i hope that she continues to use her art to make the viewer question not only society but also themselves, after seeing these pieces it forced me to turn a critical eye towards myself and my actions, no i don't kill people who are different yet i do have a double standard i wont use the "N" word , i don't even feel comfortable typing it, yet i let anti-homosexual words fly out with little thought using them as a synonym for shitty, or stupid, or a hole. i will probably not be able to totally stop immediately but these pieces helped me to see that when i say the guy that cut me off in traffic is a f*cking "F", or that my public speaking class is sooooo "G" , or i tell my friend stop being a "Q" i might as well call the class, or the rude driver, my friend or my nephew a "N" because these words are both derogatory and equally hurtful. so thank you Marcy for making me look deeply inside myself and see my faults, hopefully your work will be able to have the same effect on other viewers in the future. (whether you make millions in you career or end up homeless, if you can make people look inside themselves and question themselves and the world around them then and only then are you a successful artist, )

i hope that you are successful in your future pursuits and that you never try to make pretty art, because it is useless and unneeded today, only when reality become beautiful (for all members of society) should you or any other artist focus on "pretty stuff".

Julie Farnan Extra Credit: Senior Exit Show

After my last class on April 27th, I visited the Senior Exit Show in Haas Gallery. I went to support my good friend Heather DeFrancesco, and to see her final projects she has been working hard on. Throughout the semester, Heather has been showing me her pieces for the show and telling me all about what she's making, when she showed me the final project in the gallery I was blown away.

As a digital major, it was apparent by looking at her work that she found her calling. Her two pieces followed the theme of body organs, one piece being ribs and a heart, and the other a skull with brains. Both were printed on fabric and stuffed in certain areas to give it a 3D aspect. She then sewed them up, and added a ribbon-like material around the edges of the piece. I feel that the final touch of the framing the outer part of the piece was a nice touch because it brought the piece together in both cases. Her color schemes were pinks, reds, white, and creams, and it all popped to the viewers eye thanks to the ribbon framing.

Also, the 3D aspect she added to each piece helped grab the viewers attention. In her first piece, she stuffed the area of the heart as if its popping out through the rib cage. The second piece she stuffed the brains which too are popping out, but in this case from the skull.

Heather's two pieces were very different from most others submitted in the show. This is exactly how she wanted it to be. Most pieces were neatly framed, or were 2D photography, drawings, paintings or montages. Heathers were not in perfect little frames, or on the 2D scale. Her pieces were in your face, and ready for the viewer to interact with them, and even touch them if they wanted to.