Skidmore College - Scope Magazine Fall 2018

8 SCOPE FALL 2018 Y E A R I N R E V I E W 2 0 1 8 Christopher Massa Dayna Joseph ’19 first learned about Zanele Muholi from her textbook in an art history class. She was intrigued by Muholi, who calls herself a “visual activist” and is known for her “Faces and Phases” photography, which aims to highlight the humanity of lesbians and transgender men in her native South Africa. When Joseph saw that Muholi was coming to the Tang Museum for Skidmore’s Artist Interview course, she signed up to be on the interviewing team. “The class gives students unique learning experiences with living artists and contributes to how they are presented to the world,” says the Tang’s Dayton Director Ian Berry, who teaches the course. “All of the artists interviewed for class have work in the Tang collection, so our students are also adding to what we and future scholars know about the artwork on campus.” Artists interviewed by Berry’s students include Syd Carpenter, whose sculptural work brings attention to the past and present lives of African-American farmers; Michael Joo, who explores perception and identity, often informed by scientific research; Paula Wilson, whose feminist art is a hybrid, pattern-filled mo- saic of materials and imagery that mixes biography and body with fashion and technology; Jamal Cyrus, who experiments with conceptual connections between performance, music and politics; and Miguel A. Aragón, who manipulates news photos to resensitize viewers to the fatalities in his hometown of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. All the interviews are conducted on camera before classmates, Tang staff members and crews with cameras, lights and microphones. When the cameras rolled for her Muholi interview, Joseph felt a little nervous, but she says, “I think my anxiety helped me get through it.” “Some students haven’t yet understood art history as something crafted by individuals,” Berry remarks. “These interviews put students in the position of having to mediate the sometimes chance elements that can shape the creation of art history. Artists like Muholi know a question can shape their legacy just as much as their answer can.” Muholi’s interview covered her career as an internationally acclaimed photographer and what she means by “visual ac- tivist.” She has a political goal for her photography to counter the history of bigotry and violence experienced by the black lesbian, gay, transgender and intersex communities of South Africa to which she belongs, and to argue for their own place in the world. The dialogue with Muholi was an experience that Joseph won’t soon forget. “She was a very positive, amazing woman,” she says. “I think her toughness is the obvious result of the life she had to live.” For Joseph, the main lessons of the course occurred in class discussion after the interviews. “Ian and the students were able to pick out things that weren’t im- mediately apparent during the interviews. A lot of artists have ways of deflecting or not answering when they’re answering; others really like to talk. Zanele Muholi likes to talk, and she has an agenda. And she was able to get her agenda out.” All of the course’s interviews will be available to research- ers, and edited versions will be published on the revamped Tang collection website scheduled to launch in fall 2018. —Michael Janairo Interviewee-artist Jamal Cyrus discusses his work, recently featured in the Tang’s Other Side exhibition. Collection conspectus The Tang collec- tion includes more than 14,000 objects ranging from pre- Columbian artifacts to paintings, photo- graphs, video and sculpture by leading contemporary artists. The works are used in exhibitions; in arts, humanities and sci- ence courses; and in forums on issues from incarceration to public monuments to activ- ism in the digital age. In fall 2018, the Tang will relaunch tang.skidmore.edu/ collectio n with 1,000- plus high-resolution images of artwork, videos of artists dis- cussing their work and other resources. —MJ Artists in their own words