Little Habits/The Observer & Observed!/Identity in the Digital Age/Oasis
Ritter Art Gallery
On View: November 14 - November 27, 2024
Opening Reception: November 14, 2024, 4:30 - 8:30 pm
Little Habits
Featuring: Caitlin Rosolen
Little Habits is a body of work that explores my body's physical defense and chemical adaptation, navigating long-term chronic stress and traumas through sculpture installation. Emphasizing physical tactility, the use of soft, pliable natural fibers and glass beads is purposeful in their weaving, entanglement, and embedding within and through the reclaimed wood stretchers. These materials penetrate the hard, charred structures, while certain sections are physically suspended. The series as a whole represents a metaphorical self-portrait housing the physical and mental intimate carnal transgressions that probe the discussion of trauma and associated coping mechanisms. Focusing on an over-arching survey of maladaptive coping mechanisms, the underlying subject matter of this body of work serves as a self-reflection and visual translation of the everchanging, yet ultimately unresolved, internal dialogue. The work serves as both a self-reflection and a visual translation of this ongoing struggle between the physical and the emotional.
The Observer & Observed!
Featuring: Azarakhsh Shafieikadkani
My MFA thesis Project explores the concept of the gaze and its role in shaping identity, drawing on feminist and psychoanalytic theories. With analysis of the power dynamics between the viewer & the viewed, my work challenges traditional representations of marginalized bodies. Through experimental photography, I distort and deconstruct the human form to resist objectification, encouraging viewers to question the societal and political implications of how we look and are looked at.
Identity in the Digital Age
Featuring: Nargiza Dadabaeva
My artwork explores identity and connection in a digitally driven world where curated online personas often overshadow authenticity. Growing up between Uzbekistan and the United States, I use collage and mixed media to reflect the fragmentation of self shaped by contrasting cultures and the duality of online performance. Reflective elements in my art invite viewers to confront their own digital selves, questioning the emotional cost of maintaining multiple personas. Ultimately, my work challenges viewers to seek genuine, meaningful connections amidst digital fragmentation.
Oasis
Featuring: Parinaz Moghadampour
This fiction project by Parinaz Moghadampour, aka PARMO, critiques consumerism by depicting a human in the mass production cycle alongside a product, progressing through factory stages in a pose reflecting pop culture’s focus on intellect and morality. They reach a “media altar,” symbolizing advertising’s manipulation and control of identity. A contrasting waterfall represents nature and resilience, surrounded by waste to highlight the environmental cost of consumerism. The interactive waterfall fosters a tangible human-nature connection, enhancing viewers’ awareness of consumerism’s ecological effects.
Images (top to bottom): Picture 1: You Know What They Say About Jobs: When You Love What You Do, You Never Work a Day in Your Life, Caitlin Rosolen, 2024, draped chiffon, yarn and pearl beads on scorched reclaimed wood, dimensions vary depending on size of load. Picture 2: There's An Art to Oversharing While Simultaneously Making Sure That People Still Know Nothing About You, But That Song 'Short People' By Randy Newman Is Wild, Caitlin Rosolen, 2024, needle-felted wool, hair weaving thread, human hair and scorched reclaimed wood. 92½” x 53” x 22". Picture 3:The power of gaze(3 of 6), Azarakhsh Shafieikadkani, 2024, digital photography, acetate on LED Screen, 24” x 36”. Picture 4: Deconstruction(2 of 3), Azarakhsh Shafieikadkani, 2024, digital photography, face mounted acrylic print, 29” x 44”. Picture 5: Faces, Nargiza Dadabaeva, 2024, acrylic, spray paint, magazine, and mirror sheets on canvas, 36” x 34”. Picture 6: Exhaustion, Nargiza Dadabaeva, 2024, acrylic, spray paint, magazine, and mirror sheets on canvas, 36” x 36”. Picture 7/8: Oasis, Parinaz Moghadampour, 2024, Digital projection, Full HD.