Category: Miscellaneous

The Illusion of Being: the artists’ interview with Cravens, Faircloth, and Whitt

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Thank you to each of you for your willingness to participate in this interview. This exhibition, The Illusion of Being, is a captivating exhibition in the Hawn Gallery and I hope that many more visitors at the university and in the arts community take advantage of seeing it before it closes on May 17th. It has been phenomenal to have this installation in the Hawn Gallery at Hamon.

To begin, each body of work by the three of you has a very strong affiliation with the concept of illusion. Could you discuss how this concept, whether through its creation in photography or other design, served as a lodestar in the development of your work?

Lynné: My work in The Illusion of Being is a culmination of 10 years of research and exploration.  It is hard to say how this work will influence the art I make next, but I can definitely see how I got to this point.  I have been working with origami and photography for quite some time now.  I am interested in how the combination of the two mediums transforms both the image and the form into something new.  With the work in The Illusion of Being, I added another layer with the introduction of the mirror.  I like how the mirror creates a horizon into another dimension, showing a different side and perspective to the objects.  I was also interested in the fact that the viewer could see themselves in the mirror, essentially becoming part of the piece.  This work not only morphs, distorts, and changes my body; but it also incorporates the body of the viewer. 

When creating artworks, I am always translating my emotions and personal experiences into a physical object.  What I am essentially doing is translating what it means to be human into an object.  When Ross suggested the title for the show as The Illusion of Being, I thought it fit perfectly with the concepts all three of us continually make work about.  It really sums up what we do.  These objects are only simulations, they are not the actual experiences.  However, through these objects we can approach these emotions and experiences from a different vantage point.

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FREE: Material Horizon Workshop: Digital Negatives – May 3rd at 11 am

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Digital Negatives
with Ross Faircloth, Artist & Ashley Whitt, Artist and Director of Visual Resources

Friday, May 3rd
11:00 am – 1:00 pm
The Darkroom, OFAC 2625

Using Adobe Photoshop, participants in this workshop will learn how to create digital negatives which will then be used to make silver gelatin prints in the darkroom.

Computers, software, and materials provided. No prior experience required.

Space limited, 10 participants  – Sign-up sheet located outside of the Darkroom, OFAC 2625

This workshop is presented in conjunction with the exhibition The Illusion of Being (on view until Sun, May 19th) in the Hawn Gallery and co-sponsored by the Hamon Arts Library. Lunch for participants will be provided courtesy of the Student Art Association. 

Thank you to Ashley Whitt, Ross Faircloth, Eileen Maxson, Senior Lecturer in Photography; Jonathan Garcia-Molina, Visiting Lecturer in Photography; and Mike Morris, Artist, for their collaboration and organization of this workshop.

The Brinkerhoff Lodge and Potter Art Iron Studios Collection at Hamon Arts Library

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What do a historic log lodge in Wyoming and the Bywaters Special Collection at the Hamon Arts Library have in common? As it turns out, both house unique collections related to a Dallas art studio, the Potter Art Iron Studios.

The Brinkerhoff Lodge in Wyoming is an exaggerated rustic cabin on the shores of Jackson Lake in Grand Teton National Park. Zachary K. Brinkerhoff, Jr., owner of the Brinkerhoff Drilling Company, constructed the lodge in 1947 with the help of Wyoming architect, Jan Wilkings. The building features magnificent views of the Teton Mountains. It also houses a collection of rustic furniture designed by Thomas Molesworth, and fixtures and other iron works designed by Potter Iron and Ornamental Works. The Potter pieces at the Brinkerhoff include wall sconces, chandeliers, exterior lights, freestanding ashtrays, and fire tools. Each of them use Western-style design.

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Hawn Gallery presents The Illusion of Being: Photographic Works by Lynné Bowman Cravens, Ross Faircloth, and Ashley Whitt

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The final Hawn Gallery exhibition for spring 2019, The Illusion of Being: Photographic Works by Lynné Bowman Cravens, Ross Faircloth, and Ashley Whitt, is a group exhibition of photographic works by DFW-based artists. Each artist utilizes lens-based media to investigate notions of reality as perceived by the self.

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Jones Film Collection – March 2019

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In the Media

It’s been way too long, and we have so much to share!

The Jones Collection was all over the news these last few months.  Here are some of the highlights!

Social Media Stats for February 

The Jones Collection is going international!  We had just around 39,000 views of our videos this month, 11% of which came from outside of this country.  As of today, our videos have a grand total of 400,424 views.  Our most popular clips during the month of February were:

Newsfilm Update

To date, we have digitized 3,321 rolls of WFAA newsfilm and now have over 1,040 hours of video ready to be used in research, documentaries, or for just a look into the past.

News

  • On July 23 & 24,  Byron Hunter’s documentary, SANTOS VIVE, about the murder of 12-year-old Santos Rodriguez, premiered at the Angelika Theater Dallas.  This film was largely comprised of footage from the Jones Archive’s WFAA Collection.
  • ARK, a cinematic installation featuring a film by Michael A. Morris made from archival 35mm film prints held in the G. William Jones Film and Video Collection, opened in the Hamon Arts Library’s Hawn Gallery. This work was installed on a looping film system devised and built by the Jones Collection and Brad Miller. 
  • Local film producer Stephen Jarchow donated several hundred film posters, as well as the raw 35mm film elements to the Academy Award- winning picture, GODS AND MONSTERS.  More info on the donation here.
  • Archivist Tim Binkley of Bridwell Library hosted a screening of IN GOD’S SERVICE, a recently found film about the construction of the original quadrangle at SMU.  This film was discovered in the Jones Collection’s vault and digitized and restored in-house.  
  • Students, faculty, and members of the Department of World Languages and Literature at SMU toured the G. William Jones Collection.  Afterwards, curator Jeremy Spracklen spoke at panel hosted by the department, entitled “When ‘Greats’ Works Aren’t ‘Good.’”

Screenings

The Jones Collection screened prints for SMU classes and continued its monthly series at the historic Texas Theatre, showcasing a wide array of prints from our 35mm collection. These include: 

  • THE BLOOD OF JESUS
  • ALLIGATOR
  • ADIOS AMIGO
  • FANTASTIC ANIMATION FESTIVAL
  • NOAH’S ARK and short film ARK from artist, Mike Morris
  • EXECUTIVE ACTION
  • HARLEQUIN
  • ALLEY CAT
  • CYCLONE
  • CARIB GOLD

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Q & A with conceptual writer and professor, Simon Morris

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The spring 2019 Hawn Gallery exhibition, Information/Object: Late 20th – Early 21st Century Artists’ Books, features a selection of artists’ books from the Hamon Arts’ and DeGolyer’s libraries collections as well as some personal loans from collectors. One of the books, The Royal Road to the Unconscious, is a work by the conceptual writer and professor, Simon Morris. This work documents Morris’ project of having each word in Sigmund Freud’s The Interpretation of Dreams cut from its page, collected in over 200,000 slips, and later scattered at 90 mph upon a road in Dorset, England, approximately 122 miles from Freud’s psychoanalytical couch. These instructions mimic that of Royal Road Test by Ed Ruscha with Mason Williams and Patrick Blackwell. The two works are on view and share a space in the first case.

I recently corresponded with Morris to ask for permission to have his work scanned and digitally displayed in its entirety in the exhibition. It is now available for viewing in the gallery until the exhibition’s close on March 8th. Not only did Morris grant permission, he also agreed to an interview for the Hamon blog. This opportunity creates a fuller understanding of this work and his art practice.

  • Could you please discuss your work, The Royal Road to the Unconscious (2003), and the relationship you see with Royal Road Test (1967) by Ed Ruscha with Mason Williams and Patrick Blackwell?

Surprisingly, the relationship isn’t as close as it may ostensibly appear. There’s an entire industry making iterations of Ed Ruscha’s book works, as you can see from exhibitions like Ed Ruscha: Books & Co. at the Gagosian in New York, LA and Paris and the Brandhorst Museum in Munich,organized by Gagosian director Bob Monk with over seventy examples. Or Follow-ed at Rennes University, curated by Michalis Pichler and Tom Sowden with over 400 examples. However, my motivation for The Royal Road to the Unconscious was in order to conduct an experiment on the writing of Sigmund Freud as I was working closely with a psychoanalyst at that time on creative projects for a period of around five years. I utilised Ed Ruscha’s Royal Road Test as a set of Readymade instructions in order to conduct an experiment on Sigmund Freud’s book, The Interpretation of Dreams (1899). I had observed a contradiction in Freud’s work that I wished to explore. Freud investigates the realm of the unconscious, the space of the irrational, but to do so he employs rational procedures such as syntax, grammar and punctuation.

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Collection spotlight: Harriet Bacon MacDonald Collection

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Harriet Bacon MacDonald organized the performances of notable musical acts from around the world including Sousa and Rachmaninoff among many others in Dallas, Texas. MacDonald was also a teacher of classes in the Dunning Music System. The bulk of the material in this collection was gathered during her time as an impresaria in Dallas, Texas and a teacher of Dunning classes across the United States. The collection includes correspondence, documents, ephemera, programs, published works, photographs, and a scrapbook. Most of the material originates from Dallas, Texas, but there is also material from other states and cities.

Harriet Bacon MacDonald (1865-1935) was a notable impresaria in Dallas, Texas and teacher of the Dunning system. MacDonald received musical training in her hometown near Boston, Massachusetts where she first studied piano under the tutelage of James M. Tracy. MacDonald became a professional accompanist. She continued her training in Europe and worked with prominent artists. After her studies were completed, she returned to the United States and toured with the Norma Trio and the Constance Balfour Concert Company as an accompanist and impresaria. She came to Dallas, Texas through the Constance Balfour Concert Company and opened a studio in 1910. Soon afterward, she became director of the Schubert-Choral Club and used her connections from Europe to arrange musical acts in Dallas. MacDonald partnered with Mrs. Wesley Porter Mason to manage the performances of influential and well-known artists in Dallas, TX. MacDonald took the Dunning System course in 1915 and became a teacher soon after. Through this position, she traveled all over the United States teaching the Dunning System. In 1928, Macdonald’s husband, James R. Saville, became the new lessee of The Circle and renamed it the Showhouse. The theater hosted musical acts managed by MacDonald. In 1931, after being unable to pay for an opera troupe’s performance, along with some other scandals, MacDonald began having financial problems, which in turn caused her to go bankrupt and end her career as a manager. MacDonald passed away in 1935 at the age of 70. Her husband, James R. Saville, donated her papers to Southern Methodist University a week after her passing.

Please take a look at the detailed finding aid available through Texas Archival Resources Online here: https://legacy.lib.utexas.edu/taro/smu/00298/smu-00298.html

Image Courtesy of Harriet Bacon MacDonald collection, Bywaters Special Collections, Hamon Arts Library, Southern Methodist University

Arts, Humanities, and the Study of Governance: a conversation about arts and politics with Anthony Bertelli and Alex Turrini

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Hamon Arts Library and the Arts Management and Arts Entrepreneurship Division

announce

Arts, Humanities, and the Study of Governance: A conversation about arts and politics with Anthony Bertelli and Alex Turrini

Venue and Time: Hamon Arts Library, Conference Room 2250 (2nd floor)
February 12th, 12 – 1:30 pm (lunch provided)
Registration via email: mkeene@smu.edu

The relationship between arts and politics is widely studied in cultural studies, but scholars in the field have always underestimated the role of arts institutions in cultural policies. These agencies might work as gatekeepers and influencers in either speaking truth to power or in strengthening the narrative of power. The conversation will focus above all on the how today’s political instability shapes the behavior of intermediaries (i.e. independent funding agencies, bureaucracies deciding on funds, nonprofit arts institutions and its constituencies) in the arts world and, vice versa, how these actors shape the political discourse.

Convenors

Anthony M. Bertelli (PhD, University of Chicago) is Full Professor at the Department of Political and Sciences at Bocconi University, Milan (Italy). He has been Professor of the Politics of Public Policy and Director of Undergraduate Studies at the Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service. His research is focused on issues of governance, centering on the role of political institutions in shaping public policy outcomes and organizational structure. He is the author of four books, including: Madison’s Managers with Laurence E. Lynn, Jr. (Johns Hopkins University Press); The Political Economy of Public Sector Governance (Cambridge University Press); and Public Policy Investment with Peter John (Oxford University Press). His work has appeared in a variety of scholarly journals, including: American Journal of Political Science, Journal of Politics, British Journal of Political Science, Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, and Public Administration Review.  

Alex Turrini (Ph.D., Bocconi Universit) is chair of the SMU Meadows Division of Arts Management and Arts Entrepreneurship as well as visiting professor of arts management and cultural policy at SMU Meadows and Cox School of Business. Turrini is the author of numerous books and papers on these topics. His works have been published in International Journal of Arts Management, Journal of Arts Management, Law, and Society, International Journal of Cultural Policy; Public Administration Review, and American Behavioral Scientist, among others. He serves as reviewer of some national and international journals and is associate editor in management for the International Journal of Arts Management.

Feature image: Ambrogio Lorenzetti. (1338-1339). Effects of Good Government on Town and Country at http://www.amiciperlacitta.it/news/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Gli-effetti-del-Buon-Governo-in-citta-1024×423.jpg  

Stephen P. Jarchow Collection: new gift for the Jones Film & Video Collection

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The G. William Jones Film & Video Collection in the Jake and Nancy Hamon Arts Library is pleased to announce a gift from executive producer, Stephen P. Jarchow, of elements from the award-winning 35mm film “Gods and Monsters.” Additionally, this gift includes a significant collection of original film posters and advertising materials. This generous donation will further the Jones Collection’s mission of supporting and fostering student understanding in the creation, presentation, and preservation of film as an art form.

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