Infinite Affinities: Cunningham Theater Exhibition

Gallery interns Yunyue (Sarah) Zhang ’23 and Sarah Willoughby ’25 recently curated an exhibition for the lobby of the Cunningham Theater building on campus. This exhibition is in response to the Theater Department’s upcoming play “Every Body.”

Infinite Affinities

Death. The word looms with darkness and fear. Similarly, Branden Jacob-Jenkins’ play Everybody that faces the overwhelming question of “What is the meaning of life” and other moralities, we explore the relationships that bring meaning to both life and death. Retouching the original morality play Everyman, Everybody approaches the same question with a comical twist to resonate with 21st century audiences. Our exhibition attempts to accomplish the same: to see death not as the opposite of living, but a part of life. In life, we build extensive relationships to ourselves, to others, to our identity, and to our environment. These relationships not only make death easier to face but also define our life. These relationships with self and others can last for infinity, and hence our title Infinite Affinities.

Infinite Affinities started with David Hilliard’s “Dad,” a piece that strikes us as fragile and poetic. Hilliard’s adoption of a panorama guides us across the picture plane, and we enter an intimate relationship between him and his father, marked by a sense of separation. The father is enclosed within an interior space whereas we, coming from the perspective of the artist, are looking at his father from outside. The divided interaction and the physical distance seem representative of their personal separation. The father is depicted in a vulnerable and reticent way that it starkly contrasts the super-hero impression of a father for a child. Hilliard’s father was a divorced Navy veteran and retired factory worker who struggled to accept his son’s homosexuality. The photograph is a poignant reckoning with his father as human and fallible, and at the same time documents a careful observation by the son who is learning how to interact with his father. The artist photographed his father for four decades. In 2015, heart trouble, and later dementia, landed his father in a nursing home. Sadly, Hillard had to bid farewell to his father in 2020 when he succumbed to COVID-19.

Although a seemingly opposite work to “Dad,” is “Air,” a print from Davidson College Professor Emeritus, Herb Jackson ‘67. Air is an ethereal piece depicting a floating mirror in a bright blue sky, reflecting the clouds above. The imagery feels incredibly buoyant and almost uncanny. In many ways the work demonstrates a relationship of self and to our environment. When looking at the print you feel the heaven-like levity that comes with acknowledgment and acceptance of self. The mirror reflects an infinite sky with infinite possibilities. The heavenly space is also reminiscent of death but feels less daunting and appears as an act of surrender. Although different from the other works in this exhibition, “Air” offers a different take on the affinities we carry with us throughout life.

“Infinite Affinities” presents multiple approaches to relationships and to life. David Hilliard writes on his website: “The casual glances people share can take on a deeper significance, and what initially appears subjective, and intimate is quite often a commentary on the larger contours of life.” Death is itself also part of the contour of our lives. We wish our exhibition to remind people of the precious encounters we experience. These artworks celebrate those moments when our lives intertwine and the power these encounters bring us during times of difficulties.

Curated by Yunyue (Sarah) Zhang ’23 & Sarah Willoughby ’25