Artists: John Akomfrah, Lyle Ashton-Harris, Cheryl Dunye, Rotimi Fani-Kayode, Zoe Leonard, Mwangi Hutter, Zanele Muholi, Andrew Putter, Mickalene Thomas, and Carrie Mae Weems.

Glyphs: Acts of Inscription presents the work of ten international artists from Africa, Europe and the United States. The exhibition builds on the premise that identities are constituted through acts of inscription, real or imagined - into history, popular iconographies and artistic canons - and probes the consequences of such acts on the poetic and political dimensions of representation, difference and visibility.

Working in photography, moving image and mixed media, the artists represented cannibalize and query such archives to create new image repertoires that point to the lacunae—the silences, absences, and erasures— contained within prevalent visual-historical renderings. These critical interventions challenge existing discourses, destabilizing the deeply ambiguous and often surreal taxonomies of ‘raced’, gendered, and sexed representation. The results are collective imaginaries more able to accommodate the complexity of historically situated, lived experience.

In the works chosen for this exhibition, art becomes an alternate, subversive form of power that produces new, non-binary possibilities and paradigms—ones that disrupt, augment, and reclaim. Within these projects, we encounter desire, fantasy, seduction; oscillations between truth, memory, and fiction; documentation, invention, and performative deconstruction; strategies of assemblage, recyclage, and artistic exorcism.

The exhibition is accompanied by a symposium, a keynote lecture by Carrie Mae Weems, a screening of new work by John Akomfrah followed by conversation with the artist, and more.

Funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Pitzer College Art Galleries, and the Pasadena Art Alliance.

Emerging Artist Series # 8: Danielle Adair: On the Rocks in the Land

Lenzner Family Art Gallery, September 19 – December 6, 2013

The documentary-performance-video installation, On the Rocks, In the Land analyzes the role of ‘tourist-observer,’ within contemporary ‘conflict zones,’ and questions how a ‘tourist’ perceives and experiences sites of historic and contemporary political significance. The project incorporates experiences of and around the peace lines of Belfast, the Berlin Wall, the Stone Walls of New England, the US-Mexican border in Ciudad Juárez and the Occupy Wall Street Movement. By highlighting these sites, the exhibition explores the notion of ‘play’ as a persistent and ethical form of resistance in relation to the physicality of a ‘wall’ as defined by these specific locations. Although exploring the intersection of place, politics, and play in these sites, the project resists the urge to enforce a dominant narrative, seeking instead to excavate unfamiliar forms of resistance and protest.

Jaider Esbell

Barbara Hinshaw Gallery, Grove House, October 1 – November 29, 2013

This exhibition will be taking place in conjunction with the course: “Run to the Forest,” co-taught by professor Leda Martins and Jaider Esbell, an indigenous artist from the Brazilian Amazon. The exhibition presents paintings that reflect on indigenous and global discourses of nature, sustainability, and development. There is a particular concern with the cosmologies and historical experiences of the Macuxi Indians. At the core of the exhibit, will be paintings from a series representing the history of cattle in the Macuxi territory; the cattle were introduced by white capitalist ranchers, and the paintings explore both the impact of the cattle on the environment and the ways that Macuxi Indians have understood and responded to the cattle and the ranchers. Macuxi artist Jaider Esbell was born and lives in the state of Roraima, in the northern Brazilian Amazon. He will spend the semester at Pitzer as a visiting artist/professor. A geographer as well as an artist, Esbell, uses different forms of visual means to synthesize elements of Macuxi cosmology, history and natural world, which are reflected in his paintings.

Spring 2014

Pitzer College 50th Anniversary Exhibition: Martin Durazo

Lenzner Family Art Gallery, Pitzer College Art Galleries

Martin Durazo ’91, a graduate of Pitzer College, makes large-scale multi-media artworks, including painting, sculpture, found objects, video, sound components as well as performance, and employs a variety of traditional and unconventional materials. His resulting installations combine elements of high-design “finish-fetish” minimalism with makeshift provisional structures. The work’s compelling narratives reflect our engagement with high and low culture and explores the influence of mass media on shaping the way we think and experience the world. Impactful and experiential, Durazo’s installations encourage us to question conventional values and expectations—driven by our media-saturated world—and by doing so, learn to think for ourselves. For Pitzer’s 50th anniversary celebrations, Durazo will select an object from Pitzer’s evolving archive to use as a starting point for a site-specific installation that will reflect on his experiences at Pitzer during the late ’80s and early ’90s.

Pitzer College 50th Anniversary Exhibition: Arthur Dubinsky: The Life and Times of Pitzer College

Founders Room, January 18 – May 18, 2014

This exhibition will look at the photographic work of Arthur Dubinsky, who documented the Pitzer College community and campus from its inception in 1963 until 1985. The photographs depict various aspects of college life and will be focused on specific themes, including Governance, Campus Life, Construction, and Commencement, creating a rich visual history of Pitzer College. In addition, excerpts from interviews—with students and faculty—conducted by founding faculty member Werner Warmbrunn will be converted into digital files and available on iPods, providing a range of perspectives on life at Pitzer during a 20-year period. This exhibition is part of Pitzer’s 50th anniversary celebration.

Andrea Bowers: #sweetjane

Collaboration between Pitzer College Art Galleries and Pomona College Museum of Art, Nichols Gallery and Pomona Museum of Art, January 18, 2014 – March 29, 2014

#sweetjane, is a new project by Los Angeles-based artist, Andrea Bowers, about the “Steubenville Rape Case” concerning the rape of 16-year-old girl last August, and the subsequent trial that unfolded earlier this year. A small, close-knit community on the Ohio River bordering West Virginia—a rustbelt city reflecting the last remnants of industrialization—Steubenville is home to “Big Red,” one of the most famous high school football teams in the country. On the night of August 11, 2012, the star football players raped a 16-year-old girl from the neighboring town of Weirton, WV. The incident was played out on various social media sites, which featured the football players’ celebratory posts, pictures and tweets and as a result received national attention.

In addition to drawing and photography, #sweetjane comprises a video based on Bowers’ three trips to Steubenville that document the protest surrounding the trial and activities of “hactivist” group Anonymous. This documentation is interspersed with video and photographs from the artist’s teen years—Bowers grew up in a small, football town similar to Steubenville.In this work, Bowers returns to the core subject matter of women’s rights and draws attention to the under-recognized “rape culture” that is a tradition in this country. Her return to Ohio to document the Steubenville case is a form of personal mapping of 30 years of violence against women.

The project explores the notion of anonymity—which became a form of protection for the victim (Jane Doe), Anonymous and the townspeople—as well as the visibility of the teen rapists, with whom the media ultimately sympathized. Ultimately this project is about the naming of injustice. For so many, Jane Doe offered the opportunity for others to finally speak about their own experiences of violence against women and perhaps help change the imbalance of patriarchal power.