“Channeling: Body ← Image → Viewer,” the fall exhibition at Columbia’s Museum of Contemporary Photography, brings together works by 11 international artists who use the body as a medium for memory and communication.
Spanning from the 1970s to the present, the show includes photo sequences, videos and immersive installations that highlight how artists have developed unique ways of channeling lived experience through and with the body. Several of the featured artists have rarely been exhibited in the United States, and some are now deceased.
“This is my swan song, the big thing that I’m doing before the end,” said co-curator Joan Giroux, a professor in the School of Visual Arts who will retire in May after nearly 20 years at the college. “It was important to me to bring attention to these artists whose works deserve to continue being seen.”
One of the most striking installations is Gustav Metzger’s “Historical Photographs: To Crawl Into,” a Holocaust-era image draped in yellow cloth that requires viewers to crawl underneath to glimpse the photograph in fragments.
“I like that it’s hard work to look at the image and know the story,” said Kyli Hawks, a senior photography major and Jay W. Boersma Arts Education Fellow at MoCP. “It’s not just conveniently placed in front of you.”
While curating the exhibit, Giroux picked pieces that could evoke emotion for the viewer. She described the artworks displayed by Ketty La Rocca as humble and quiet. In La Rocca’s work, the artist overlays an X-ray image of her skull with photographs of her hands, displaying the visual vocabulary of sign language.
“They have a loud resonance of how La Rocca wants to connect to the viewer,” Giroux said.
Columbia students got a chance on Tuesday night, Sept. 30, to see the exhibit and connect with fellow art enthusiasts while hearing directly from MoCP staff and the co-curator of the works on display.
The MoCP, located at 600 S. Michigan Ave., is Columbia’s art museum dedicated to photography. Founded in 1976 as a successor to the Chicago Center of Contemporary Photography, the MoCP has collected nearly 18,000 artworks by 2,000 artists. The museum has three exhibitions a year, with the current one featured from Sept. 2 through Dec. 20.
The student reception showcased the new exhibit and introduced the campus art museum to students who may not be familiar with it.
Through food, trivia, prizes and networking, students explored the museum outside of normal operating hours and had one-on-one conversations with museum staff.
Kristin Taylor, curator of academic programs and collections, said the event is meant to show that MoCP’s resources extend far beyond photography majors.
“We’re always working with contemporary artists who are interpreting imagery, but
they’re artists from all around the world; you’ll see sculpture, you’ll see painting, you’ll see
printmaking, you’ll see video,” Taylor said.
Taylor added that many students who come to the museum often don’t know how many free resources are available to them.
Kieran Jacobs, a senior music business major, did not know about the museum until he decided to come to the reception.
“The museum can be very inspirational to students, it’s also just awesome having it at your own college and having access to it at any time,” Jacobs said.
Olivia Adamitis, a junior fine arts major, came to the reception after having a class where she learned about space, performance art and interactive installation. She was then able to see those methods before her eyes at the museum exhibit.
Adamitis said that it is important to have these interactive spaces at Columbia so she can see the work displayed that she is actively learning about.
Additional reporting by Emma Jolly
Copy edited by Manuel Nocera
