By: Destiny Adams
In today’s world, where many of us feel uncertain if we would have a normal life again in this pandemic, events like, Living in Color, give us a feel of normal life by the school still having their annual senior exhibit to showcase their talent before leaving a place that helps these talented young artists to advance in their works. The exhibit, Living in Color, was entitled to showcase the variety of different backgrounds of each artist and the giving us a glimpse of the lifestyle they were brought up in. On the website, the written introduction explains what the show wanted to demonstrate, “The work shown in Living in Color explores the use of art as communication. This communication can lie within the self as a deeper personal exploration or shine through with the ability to share our unique experiences in life. Each one of us sees the world through such diverse perspectives. This is featured in work that expresses the versatility of the body, the struggles of living as a person of color in America, and the duality of nature.”(2021).
With 20 different artists being shown in this year’s exhibit; it was a lot of art that I was looking forward to speaking on. A few highlight artists that the art department has broadcast recently on their Instagram page are the artist I have met before corona, and I genially am happy to see their art getting recognition. Joellyn Mak is one of these inspiring seniors I have had the chance to take courses with when I first came to Valdosta State University as a freshman. From the computer in art class to now; her work is always contained certain Chinese and Japanese culture within her works. One of her works I am drawn to is “Crystalize Thoughts”. The astonishing watercolor painting shows a woman who is looking down as if she in deep thought. Around her look as if there are small fragment pieces of stones that broke away from the figure. Another artist that was featured VSU art and design Instagram would be Christian perry. This ground-breaking artist has turn carbon-foot into an eco-fashion friendly idea; he uses a lot of background knowledge of the textile, fabric, and graphic design industry to create art that a based-on fashion. One of his works that is quite peculiar is “I Don’t Want To Die For Fashion”, picture shown above , which is deconstructed jeans that end up creating a beautiful jean jacket. However, if you look closely, through the jacket in black ink it has the art title written all over. This piece was created to make awareness of how fast fashion-store like Forever 21 and H & M, have a huge impact on the environment due to the waste it produces. It is also known that with all the money they make; the worker he makes these clothes do not get paid as much as they should.
However, although the previous two artists I briefly talk about have amazing works. It is one artist I truly wanted to meet and talk about due to recent events in how certain religions view artists. Although Christian himself, his artwork shows a mixture of Christianity and other symbolic items that many Christians would question on. Looking at Callender’s first two pieces in the exhibit, “First Man”, shown above, and “First Woman”, of paragraph at the bottom, follows the trend of adding unholy imagery that most Christians would from on. Both of the figure’s torso area is nude while the lower half of the body is covered up; making feel as if this were done on purpose to keep that small from of modesty in clothing that most Christian believers think they should follow. You might say that Callender does break barriers when it comes to adding in symbols that many Christians would say it does not belong. However, I see his reasoning on why he adds it to some of his works presented in the exhibit. In his artist statement he does mention why he uses these form of imagery in his art “, I express my relationship with my faith as it pertains to my investigations into how young people are continuously swayed by a culture that leaves them with skewed perspectives on religion, drugs, and society….Artists such as Brian “Pushead” Schroeder and his use of skeletons, demonic and aggressive imagery help me shape this counter-culture approach to my creative language.”(Callender, 2021). This idea of adding certain imagery, like skeletons, or demonic imagery makes me connect how many young artists now uses this form to rebel again a society that wants them to be one thing. .One controversial artist in mind is the rapper Lil Nas X who is a new artist that is mostly known for his Grammy award-winning song “Ole Town Road.” and the amazing choreograph music videos he has for his song. However this year, on March 26 he released his new music video called, “Call Me By Your Name(Montero)” where he does give Satan a lap dance in it; the young artist stated that he went into this direction for his recent video due to any people who have Christian, or moreover conservative views, always told him he was going to “hell” for being gay. His video showed that he did not care anymore about going to hell and him accepting his sexuality fully. Even though the artist, Rasheem Callender, I want to speak on does not mention anything about his sexuality; he does use certain figuring, skulls, and horns, that can be seen as related to Satan in the eyes of Christian believers. Doing so makes me feel like his art is about rebelling or going against a cultural norm, being Christian, that he was brought upon.
Living in Color brings a diverse look to the student body of Valdosta State University. It embraces each unique experience that these fellow young artists have had throughout their lives. These experiences help mold these graduating students into the motivated artist that is ready to take on the art industry.