2006-2007

Winter 2007

Changing Still Life
1/22-2/15/07

Artists include DeWitt Cheng, Susan Danis.

Curated by Jan Rindfleisch with artist, campus and community collaborators including Nazanin Shenasa. Artist community collaborators include Janet Leong Malan, Connie Young Yu, Tom Izu (California History Center), Annie Presler and Jose Marte (Biological, Health, and Environmental Sciences Division).

Changing Still Life was an interactive exhibition comprised of "still lifes" from which viewers could draw. Viewfinders and basic sketch materials were provided. The still lifes encompassed objects reflecting different cultures and histories, found/recycled objects, objects related to different academic disciplines, and some artworks. The objects came from artists and sources on campus and in the community. Historian Connie Young Yu and artist Janet Leong Malan loaned artifacts related to early Chinese-American history in the area. Campus input included College architectural elements salvaged by the California History Center (CHC), specimens and models from the Sciences Division, and native plants related to the Environmental Studies Center. Artists Susan Danis and DeWitt Cheng displayed art and objects from their studios. Danis's sculptures referred to consumerism, the environment. Cheng's paintings had science specimens morphing into unique creatures.

Spring 2007

Material Culture
3/7-4/19/07

Artists include Reneé Billingslea, Hector Dio Mendoza, Corinne Okada, Nazanin Shenasa, Kerry Vander Meer.

Curated by Jan Rindfleisch with Nazanin Shenasa. Artist community collaborators include Chike Nwoffiah, Oriki Theater.

Material Culture connected a focus on textiles, traditional and contemporary, with a focus on our culture of materials/materialism. Playing off different title interpretations, the exhibition featured artists with content relevant to the times and community. Artist/instructor Reneé Billingslea, Santa Clara University, used clothing in her installation Fabric of Race: Lynching in America. Here clothing/textiles drew one into an important but rarely discussed part of U.S. history. Artist Corinne Okada exhibited wearable art from recycled candy wrappers from other cultures, providing cultural links for different generations. Chike Nwoffiah, Director of Oriki Theater in Mountain View, presented traditional wearable art from the Igbos in southeast Nigeria. Artist Kerry Vander Meer built art installations from women's stretch garments. Hector Dio Mendoza's community-inspired artwork reflected various meanings to material culture. His generational installation, Atomic Landscape, included solid sculptures made of crocheted doilies dipped in liquid concrete. For an Art, Leadership, and Cultural Citizenship presentation, Mendoza spoke of his public art projects and addressed specifically an Emerging Latina/o Leadership class. Nazanin Shenasa exhibited a handmade silk costume, Layla's Shroud, about being separated from your dreams.

View ancillary materials for the Spring 2007 exhibitions.