Monday-Friday, 10:00am - 4:00pm
ARTISTS: Audra Wolowiec (NY), Brian Dettmer (IL), Brian Singer (CA), Buzz Spector (NY), Carolyn Thompson (UK), Donna Ruff (FL), Doug Beube (NY), Gary Gissler (NY), Jeff Wallace (NY), Julia Bloom (DC), Kerith Lisi (CA), Lisa Kokin (CA), Meg Hitchcock (NY), Oriane Stender (NY), Stefana McClure (NY)
In CONTEXT: Art, Books, & Freedom, artist and curator Meg Hitchcock brings together 15 artists whose work incorporates books and text. The artists diverge in their approach and content, from social commentary to political statement to literary allusion, but their common ground is their love of the printed word. The artists use books and text as tools of investigation, exploring the psychological impact of visual language while pushing the boundaries of our freedom to express views that conflict with popular opinion. Paradoxically, the book is used as a means to question its own authority within the context of a revered liberal arts library. Indeed, the artists' works take on new meaning at Columbia University, where they exercise the freedom of expression at a critical time and place in our nation’s history.
Books are dissected and flayed, pages are torn and sliced, words are burnt and whited or blacked out in a process of poetic transformation. Donna Ruff’s Federalist Papers are enlarged copies of the original documents, with the letters removed by laser-cuttng and burning. Brian Singer’s Art of the Deal is a copy of Trump’s 1987 book, wrapped in the threads of a Russian flag. In the Chang Gallery, a small octagonal room within the Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Jeff Wallace has created an installation of 300+ stripped book covers that spotlight the formal elegance of the book after it has been denuded of text.
Over the years, the artists in CONTEXT have shown together in text-based group exhibitions across the country and have formed a loose community around their common medium. Their work takes on new meaning at Columbia University, where they exercise the freedom of expression at a critical time and place in our nation’s history.
Access to Columbia's campus is currently restricted to Columbia ID holders. To see the show, please contact Courtney Chartier to request campus access: [email protected]