Photo from Pittsburg State University Department of Art Facebook Page
The awards ceremony and reception for Transforming Viewpoints: A National Juried Exhibition was Thursday, January 21st in the Pittsburg State University Art Department. The exhibit included works from 20 artists, all of which had focus on different cultural viewpoints. Steve Liggett, from Living Arts of Tulsa, was the juror of the show. During the awards ceremony, he selected the winners for the following awards: solo exhibit in the University Gallery, and two separate $100 awards. The office of Student Diversity also gave $500 to the artist whose piece they would select to be displayed in their office.
Prior to the awards ceremony and reception, I met with Anh-Thuy
Nguyen, the artist for the video installation Thuy & Rice, which was included in the exhibit. We met in the
second floor gallery of Porter Hall where she critiqued my work in the Collective Independent’s exhibit. We
first looked at my 7 piece series Ambiguity
1-7. I expressed to her that the series is of a single print that shows how
different one design can be interpreted and altered yet, much like humans, we
are all alike in flesh but very different in personality. She only had one
complaint, that the shadow box was reflecting light. She seemed to change her
mind as we envisioned future shadowboxes with more depth and different
materials used. We then spoke about Stomping
Grounds which is a print of my family’s home printed on cottonwood paper
that was harvested from our land. This print and the other 6 in the edition
were prompted by a savoring a dear place. Anh-Thuy was interested in seeing
more ink on the entire surface of the paper rather than just in the rectangle
of where the plate transferred the image. She believed that would make it look
more natural and woven into the paper. Next I briefly described the 12 blocks of
linoleum prints on fabric with dye and moved onto the main topic of The Life Cycle of the Book. Through
explanation that the sculptural book experiment was derived from the metaphorical
title which included my family’s participation in the making of it. I expressed
my interest in having another group of individuals to do the “experiment” with
and adding a video component. With her experience in video performance and
installations she really enjoyed my idea. She even suggested that I learn
coding on a computer to add touch sensitive parts on the book. An example of
this would be, as a viewer opens the book a voice recording would play. Another
would be as a person touches a section of the book, a video of a person
speaking would project. I found this very intriguing for future projects. In
conclusion to the critique, we headed downstairs to her reception. Afterwards, I
was invited to dinner with Portico, Steve, and Anh-Thuy.
I learned a lot about Ahn-Thuy through the reception,
critique, and dinner. She is an assistant professor of photography at Rogers
State University in Claremore, Oklahoma. She grew up in Vietnam and later moved
to America; after attending a community college in Arizona, she got her B.F.A
in Photography at the University of Arizona and M.F.A at Southern Methodist
University. Her work is based upon her life, especially as she grew up in a
different culture than she lives in now. Her video and sound art explores
modern techniques, experimentation, and creating viewer interaction. For example,
in the video she has displayed in the exhibit, she starts off by rolling balls
of rice as she would traditionally do in Vietnam but then breaks away from
those restrictions of tradition and wipes it on her face; as a result she is
engaging the viewer outside of their comfort zones. On the other hand, she
expressed that when it comes to photography she is very adamant about following
the traditional rules. Even as a professor, she teaches students the proper techniques
of photography rather than teaching alternative and experimental methods. The
ways of traditional photography is extremely important to her.
I greatly enjoyed listening to her and spending some time on
her website. Another performance, captivating installation is Hair = To’c. Essentially she created
several cloth paths on the floor of a room that lead to where she was seated.
As the viewer entered the room, they were asked to pick up the scissors, choose
a path, cut as little or as much hair as the viewer wanted, and return the
scissors. The video includes each person doing so which leads to her having
virtually no hair. I found the concept of allowing the viewers to participate
in her “hair cut” was interesting. Being a female in our culture, hair
generally is something to take care of and have professionally cut; to have
strangers take over that personal feature would be difficult and maybe even
freeing for all parties involved. The content and motive behind her work is
highly respectable. She is such an enthusiastic person and was so kind to have
given me such thoughtful advice.
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