Rewriting the Narrative Premiers in Lamont Gallery
By Hansi Zhu, Ella Brady and Maya Cohen
Rewriting the Narrative: Student Voices, a new exhibit in the Lamont Gallery, features artwork and narratives by fifteen Exeter students and recent alumni that celebrate the strength in their diversity. The central themes of the exhibit are identity, community and the power of representation. Although all of the works are physically installed in the gallery, viewers are only able to admire them virtually via slideshows, exhibition guides, and videos on the Gallery website. Other events include hands-on workshops and four student artist talks in November.
Rewriting the Narrative is one of the exhibitions under Critical Joy, a suite of three multimedia exhibitions that will be on display in the gallery throughout the rest of fall term. In addition to Rewriting the Narrative, the suite features Unity in Color, a photography project about intersectional feminism by Brooklyn-based artist Jasmine Solano, and High Contrast, a virtual exhibition of drawings and sculpture about social identity by Massachusetts-based artist Gordon D. Chase.
According to Gallery Manager Stacey Durand, Critical Joy differs from past exhibitions because whereas the gallery normally showcases established and emerging artists from around the world, all featured artists are current students and alumni. “Like everyone, we in the gallery had to make some changes while we reimagine how to create and share exhibitions virtually,” Durand said. “This year we postponed our scheduled exhibitions and instead decided to create a place with student voices at the forefront.”
To compile the pieces for Rewriting the Narrative, the gallery reached out to current and past students who have worked previously with the gallery and whose work incorporated the relevant themes to provide their art and stories. Some of these works were made in art classes and some were created by students on their own.
Many artists who took part in the exhibition were inspired by current events. Senior Christina Xiao described how she incorporates her reality into her art. “I think in every piece of artwork artists produce, we are putting down a message of who we are at that very moment, even if the audience comes away with a different interpretation. Our choices of subject, color, medium, and shape are influenced by our present selves, which are impacted by the current events around us,” Xiao said.
Alumna Isabel Hou explained the meaning her art has in the context of recent events. “I think about the events of the past year—a global pandemic, the fight for racial justice, amongst a slew of other headlines—and I remind myself that the world is bigger than my self-conscious artist’s mind. I remind myself of what [my] piece means to me and what I had hoped it would mean to others,” Hou said.
Upper Sabrina Kearney shared a similar experience. “To me, [art] is both taking in your surroundings and creating something from your surroundings,” Kearney said. “So I’m observing the current events that are happening around me, and I’m forced to process that in my own way to show my perspective on it... It’s almost like you’re creating something that will last in this point of time based off of these events that are going on.”
Another theme that students considered in their work was diversity.
Upper Danielle Sung talked about how art can be used to express many voices within a community. “I think that’s especially relevant to Exeter because it’s clear that we all have our own stories to tell and our own voices that we want to project, whether it is through visual arts or speech or writing and the variety of voices that we have in our community, and because we have those voices, I feel like it creates this power that we hold as a community and as individuals with diverse identities,” she said.
Senior Ursie Wise’s painting was conceived as a memorial for Kalpana Chawla, the first Indian American woman to go to space. “I wanted to memorialize her in a way that I felt was meaningful. Beyond that...I wanted to create a piece that celebrated not only women in STEM, but women of color in STEM… To be a woman that has gone to space, it means that you’re pioneering something that is traditionally not something that people who share your gender identity have done. It means ... rewriting the narrative,” she said.
Sung shared her hopes for the Exhibit’s representation of diversity. “I hope this exhibition doesn’t focus on one identity... but by looking at the exhibition as a whole to know more about the strength in our diversity, and I hope it highlights our views as artists and as students,” Sung said.
Kearney noted the significance of the exhibit.“I’m really happy we’re having this exhibition this year because I think it’s really important to show student work, and, since we have such a great platform on campus to showcast the arts, it’s really great that we’re using it for this Rewriting the Narrative project.”
Hou reflected on the importance of art, especially in the midst of the current social climate. “We turn to art in times of trouble and in times of need,” she concluded. “We need art now more than ever. Works of commentary, works of protest, works of solidarity— everything helps. It’s all an expression of self, a marking of who we are in this time of chaos.”