Before We Were Us, We Were Them: Immigration and Alabama

“Before We Were Us, We Were Them” was designed and curated by Auburn University at Montgomery students enrolled in Keri Watson’s Introduction to Art Museology.

Prompted by the passage of House Bill 56/658, students researched the history of immigration in Alabama and discussed contemporary issues related to immigration including identity, belonging, racism, and globalization. The exhibition invites viewers to reflect on their own heritage and to see themselves and their ancestors in the faces of those courageous individuals who left their homelands for a better life in Alabama.

The exhibition includes photographs selected from the Alabama Department of Archives and History, the Cullman County Museum, the Doy Leale McCall Rare Book and Manuscript Library at the University of South Alabama, and the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, as well as photographs taken by Silvia Giagnoni and multimedia presentations created by students in Advanced Media Writing.

Click to watch a video from the exhibition: Tale of Two DREAMers

This exhibition would not have been possible without the hard work of the Introduction to Art Museology students: Laura Bocquin, Jonathan Felton, Raúl Fernández, Shaquille Harris, Amelia Hobson, Kelsie Miller, Kile Pointer, Ashlee René Thompson, and Amanda Brunson Tucker; and the Advanced Media Writing students: James Barrs, Brianna Bush, Megan Carruth, Sheila Djamba, Tamicha Hill, Katherine Lockwood, Morghan Prude, Reginald Simpson, Martin Stokes, Corsica Taylor, Chad Underwood, and Janet Whittington.

Chad Underwood, Morghan Prude, and James Barr

Kelsie Miller, Rene Thompson, Jonathan Felton, Raul Fernandez, and Shaquille Harris

Mr. and Mrs. Hobson and Amelia Hobson

Raul Fernandez

Mark Benson, Jennifer Brooks, and Silvia Giagnoni

Neil David Seibel and Michael Burger

Suzanne Jensen

See the coverage on the local news: WAKA Montgomery CBS News at noon

Before We Were Us, We Were Them: Immigration and Alabama was funded by a School of Liberal Arts Community Outreach Grant, as well as by the generous support of the Department of Fine Arts, the Department of Communication & Dramatic Arts, and the Office of Diversity and Multicultural Affairs. Special thanks to: Dr. Michael Burger, Dean, School of Liberal Arts; Dr. Mark Benson, Head, Department of Fine Arts; Dr. Nelya McKenzie, Head, Department of Communication & Dramatic Arts; Timothy Spraggins, Assistant Vice Chancellor for Diversity and Multicultural Affairs; William Fenn, Assistant Professor of Photography, Department of Fine Arts; Buffy Lockette and Charise Alexander, University Relations; Meredith McLemore, Norwood Kerr, and Ryan Blocker, Alabama Department of Archives and History; Drew Green and Julie Burks, Cullman County Museum; Benjamin Lang, Doy Leale McCall Rare Book and Manuscript Library at the University of South Alabama; Tim Brown and Alice Novak, Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts; Xinruo (Emma) Wang, AUM Confucius Institute; and the members of the Alabama Coalition for Immigrant Justice ( http://www.acij.net/).

The exhibition is on permanent loan to the Alabama Coalition for Immigrant Justice and can be seen in their offices located in Old Alabama Town, Montgomery.

Packing Pretty

Amanda Murrell Master of Liberal Arts Thesis Show

April 5 – April 12, 2013

Feminist author Mary Wollstonecraft stated in “A Vindication of the Rights of Woman” that men try to “secure the good conduct of women by attempting to keep them always in a state of childhood” (85).

While researching guns I became inspired by the photographs of feminine firearms that flood the Internet. In my work I recreated images of guns that are adorned with depictions of cartoon characters, rhinestones, glitter, and bright colors. My artwork reveals how manufacturers target both women and children by “feminizing” their merchandise. By targeting these two groups, they suggest that both women and children are naïve.

I want to show that by camouflaging these guns with bright colors and glitter, manufacturers make them seem less threatening and lure consumers into forgetting their real purpose—to kill.  By recreating these guns with glitter, rhinestones, and bright acrylic paint, I attempt to show the absurdity of these “feminized” guns.

While creating these pieces, I became inspired by the Pop Art of Andy Warhol who used subject matter from advertisements in his own work. Making these guns look like advertisements allows us to look at them in a new way.  By using a flat, Pop aesthetic I encourage the viewer to look at these images and see how color, glitter, and cartoon characters transform objects and make us forget their real purpose.

 

Fire, Earth, Wind, Water: The Four Elements Reinterpreted

MLA Thesis Exhibition by Buz Crump
Three-dimensional works in clay, copper, and canvas
March 27 – April 2, 2013
Reception March 28 at 7 pm

Buz Crump, visual artist/sculptor/set designer and former gallery owner of the New South Art Shop for 15 years, has made a career in various aspects of the arts and design. His accomplishments include everything from restaurant design, theater and television set design, interior design, art gallery creator representing over 200 artists, professional picture framer, motion picture art department direction for four productions, and commission artist, and soon to be graduate of Auburn University Montgomery with a Master’s Degree in Liberal Arts.

Nature and the physical universe surround us. Our physical bodies are insulated from the outside world, and that which animates them, depending on one’s viewpoint, could be interpreted as anatomical or spiritual or both. Before the invention of religions, there existed a reverence for nature as is evidenced in art and art objects from cultural history and pre-history worldwide. This thread of commonality from extinct and unrelated cultures has been a source of fascination to me in that this reverence, this act of imbuing nature with spiritual energy, such as in the four elements, things seen and unseen, sensory presentations, are the basics from which man developed more complicated interpretations. The mere existence of mythology suggests more than just a coincidence in human development. Very old patterns that have been woven into thousands of years of the human psyche have been inherited from the past. Patterns, and the people who carry them, change as well, but myths always seem to reflect the highest aspirations, desires, and the fears of distinct peoples, most often granting them a purpose for existence and a trusteeship of the land on which they reside through the consent of an unseen power. The purpose of this exhibition is to pay homage to the four elements we so casually accept and to, hopefully, elevate one’s awareness of the intellectual cultures that developed art forms and higher purposes from these most basic of elements.

My interpretations first arose in the form of something similar to totem poles. I envisioned these structures as ceramic poles. What transpired is vertical art objects, segmented, carved, fired, stained and fired again before finally painted with oil washes. These totems represent the four elements of fire, earth, water, and wind. Each columnar representation is solely based on one idea: flames for fire, patterns of water droplets overlapping with one another, swirling wind, and layers of earth. My intention was to make them appear as something primeval recently unearthed. As I began painting them, they took on another mood with color and appeared less ancient than I originally imagined; however, I much prefer the resulting work from that which was in my mind.

The second interpretation is more of a contemporary nod to actual architectural columns. These columns are topped with capitals that also interpret the painted canvas elements beneath them. This process first began with painting un-stretched canvases, which were later wrapped around lightweight wire structures. The results are whimsical.

My third approach was entirely different. I cut shapes from a copper sheet with an acetylene torch to represent shapes already alluded to in my ceramic and canvas columns but this time in a three-dimensional landscape format. The different shapes were then treated with different acid washes to produce variations in color and attached to a hard, white surface to give contrast to the metal, and then framed with a black shadow-box. I believe this piece turned out even better than I had planned in that the chemical reactions to the ordinary state of polished copper brought to life something unexpected and beautiful. –Buz Crump

Expo 13: A Juried Student Art Show

Sponsored by the Student Art Association, the 13th Annual Student Art Show was jurored by Elliot A. Knight, Visual Arts Program Manager and Director of the Alabama Artists Gallery for the Alabama State Council on the Arts.

Tiffany Ala, Samantha Lee, and T. K. Lee received honorable mentions. Third place was awarded to “Untitled” by Daniel Fuller, second place went to Paige R. Crews’s “Untitled,” and Kaylee Hobbs’s “The Tree of Knowledge” won first prize.

Paige R. Crew, 2nd place (above); Samantha Lee, honorable mention (below)

Tiffany Ala (honorable mention); work by T. K. Lee (below)

Scott Stephens’ Blue: Works on Paper

Scott Stephens, Professor and Chair of the Art Department at the University of Montevallo, specializes in large-format printmaking and historic photographic processes.

Blue: Works on Paper is on exhibit January 26 – March 3, 8 am – 4:30 pm, Monday – Friday.

Stephens will give a gallery talk on Friday, February 8, 11am -12pm and a cyanotype workshop Feb. 8 and 9.

This exhibition is in conjunction with Southern Studies: the School of Liberal Arts Conference.

http://www.liberalarts.aum.edu/southern-studies-conference

Anthony Smith: In Dog Years

Anthony Smith is an Atlanta based photographer. His series, In Dog Years, focuses on the limbo many young people experience upon graduating from college. There’s a static quality to both the portraits and landscapes which comprise his work.  

In Dog Years is on view at the Goodwyn Hall Gallery from January 7 – 24, 2013.

Artist Talk: January 24, 2013, 2:10pm in Goodwyn Gallery

2012 Faculty Show

The 2012 Department of FIne Arts Faculty Exhibition opened August 13th and will run through the 28th of September. The exhibition features work by Associate Professor of Sculpture Sue Jensen, Assoc. Prof. of Graphic Design Breuna Baine, Assoc. Prof. of Painting Andrew Hairstans, Asst. Prof. of Photography Will Fenn, Asst. Prof. of Printmaking Heidi Lingamfelter, and Art Appreciation Instructor Greg Brown.

Silhouettes of Courage: Marching to Equality April 2012

Winner: The SECAC Award for Outstanding Exhibition and Catalogue of Historical Materials

Silhouettes of Courage: Marching to Equality was designed and curated by Auburn University Montgomery students enrolled in VISU 3600: Introduction to Art Museology (Spring 2012). The exhibit featured photographs selected from the Jim Peppler Southern Courier Photograph Collection at the Alabama Department of Archives and History and the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, as well as Life Magazines from the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s.

Highlighting the lives and contributions of Benjamin O. Davis, Jr., Virginia Durr, Rev. Robert S. Graetz, John Lewis, and Dr. Gwendolyn M. Patton, as well as local events including the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the Selma to Montgomery March, the exhibit presented a story of the Civil Rights movement in Alabama.  The movement, however, did not end with the Voting Rights Act of 1965.  Thus the exhibit continued with silhouettes representing the Women’s, Chicano, American Indian, Anti-War, LGBTQ, and Disability Rights movements, as well as the current struggle over Alabama’s anti-immigration legislation, House Bill-56.  The exhibit asked viewers to see themselves in the silhouettes of the courageous individuals — both past and present, known and unknown — who have united to lobby for civil rights and social justice.

Silhouettes of Benjamin O. Davis, Jr., Virginia Durr, and Rev. Robert S. Graetz

Silhouettes of Gwendolyn Patton, Rep. John Lewis, and “Anonymous”

Barbara DeMichels and Gwen Patton (seated)

Nearly 1,000 African-American pilots trained at Tuskegee Army Air Field between 1941 and 1946.  They united to become one of the most respected U.S. fighter groups of World War II, “The Red Tails.” They were the only escort fighter group specifically asked for “By Request” in the European theater.

Benjamin O. Davis and Edward C. Gleed were distinguished Tuskegee Airmen.  Davis was Commander of the 99^th and 332^nd Fighter Groups and Gleed was Squadron Commander of the 301^st and Fighter Operations Officer of the 332^nd.

The Montgomery Bus Boycott was an economic, political, and social protest opposing racial segregation on public city buses. The campaign lasted from December 1, 1955, when Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to surrender her seat, until December 20, 1956, when the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Browder v. Gayle declared the Alabama and Montgomery laws requiring segregated buses unconstitutional.

On June 11, 1963, Alabama Governor George Wallace stood at the door of Foster Auditorium at the University of Alabama in an attempt to block two black students, Vivian Malone and James Hood, from registering. The drama of the nation’s division over desegregation came sharply into focus that day as temperatures soared and the news media looked on. State troopers surrounded the building as Deputy Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach, flanked by federal marshals, order Wallace to step aside.

Wallace refused, citing the constitutional right of states to operate public schools, colleges, and universities. Katzenbach called President Kennedy, who federalized the Alabama National Guard to help with the crisis. Ultimately, Wallace stepped aside and the two students were allowed to register for classes.

The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom was one of the largest political rallies for human rights, with over 250,000 participants, 80% of whom were black.  It took place on Wednesday, August 28, 1963 and marked the 100^th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation.

The march was planned and organized by: Philip Randolph, President, Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, President, Negro American Labor Council, and Vice President, AFL-CIO, James Farmer, Co-founder, Congress of Racial Equality, John Lewis, President, Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, Martin Luther King, Jr., President, Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Roy Wilkins, President, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and Whitney Young, Executive Director, National Urban League

The Selma to Montgomery March, a critical event in the Civil Rights Movement, was organized by John Lewis and Hosea Williams to protest lack of voting rights in Alabama. More than 500 peaceful protestors gathered for the march to Montgomery, but got only as far as the Edmund Pettus Bridge when they were brutally attacked by state and local police on Sunday, March 7, 1965, a day that came to be known as “Bloody Sunday.”

Two weeks later on March 21 about 3,200 people began the 54-mile walk to Montgomery.  Walking 10-12 miles a day and sleeping in fields, the group swelled to 25,000 by the time they reached the Capitol on Thursday, March 25.

Less than five months after the Selma to Montgomery March, President Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965 on August 6. The 1965 act suspended poll taxes, literacy tests, and other subjective voter tests.  It also authorized Federal supervision of voter registration in states where discriminatory tests had been used. Within months of its passage, 250,000 new black voters had been registered, and within four years, voter registration in the South had more than doubled.