Year in Review: Video Acquisitions, 2018-19

Artworks on this video wall were selected for exhibition by a panel of Davidson College community members, including members of the Art Collection Advisory Committee, professors, staff, and students. After a public vote and crowdfunding campaign, ten video artworks were purchased for addition to the Permanent Art Collection. These following artworks highlight a few of these additions.

Viviane Silvera

Moon on a String (2016)

Hand painted stills and stop motion video, 1:22

Viviane Silvera earned her B.A. from Tufts University and her M.F.A. from the New York Academy of Art. In her work, Silvera applies layers of wet paint to a surface to create a story through stop motion video. Silvera puts memory into motion, exploring the ways that mystery and magic relate to memories. Silvera’s work has been featured by The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, among other noteworthy media outlets. Her documentary See Memory, which was screened at the American Psychological Association Film Festival and the Imagine Science Film Festival, is currently available on Amazon.

Cynthia Farnell

Ancestors (2016)

HD digital video, 7:25

Cynthia Farnell lives and works in Atlanta, GA, where she is the director of the Welch School Galleries at Georgia State University. She earned her B.F.A. from Auburn University and her M.F.A. from the Rhode Island School of Design. Farnell’s works interrogate concepts of history, memory, and community. This work is one such example; Ancestors takes on a dream-like quality as the artist presents 150 years of her family history in a mere eight-minute video. Ancestors reflects on the dispersion of her family members and provides few details on their past, leaving the viewer to speculate about these almost ghostly distant lives.

Elizabeth Tolson

The Discovery of Venus (2017)

Video performance documentation, 13:18

Elizabeth Tolson is an artist and educator living and working in New York. She earned her B.F.A. at Alfred University and her M.F.A from Parson’s Design School. Tolson is principally interested in multimedia works that present a feminist viewpoint. This work takes a philosophical spin on Botticelli’s famous work, The Birth of Venus, by challenging the ancient constitutions of beauty. The Discovery of Venus acknowledges both the history of the female body as well as modern society’s push to revolutionize how women view themselves. Tolson designed the dress in the video with LED lights inside in order to show how garments, light, and the body interact. From a feminist stance, this interaction is rife with interesting consequences.

Alexandra Neuman

Manhole (2015)

Performance and digital video, 5:02

Alexandra Neuman is an artist based New York, and she works in film, video, and performance who is interested in the contemporary human interactions with technology. She earned a BFA in Visual Arts and Anthropology from the Sam Fox School of Art and Architecture at Washington University (St. Louis) and is currently earning her MFA in art at UC San Diego.

Olivia Crumm

The World is Breathing (2017)

Video, 8:25

Olivia Crumm is based in Mexico City, where she works in digital art and photography. She received her B.A. in Studio Art from Bard College in 2017. The World is Breathing was Crumm’s thesis at Bard. The work creates a space where the viewer can reflect on and observe patience and stillness. Crumm’s analysis of The World is Breathing states, “stillness is quiet but it moves; it breathes in a moment of drawn out motion–a slow inhale.” Like Manhole, The World is Breathing relies on a digital medium for its message; rather than seeing an artwork all at once, like in a photograph, the viewer must wait for the video to reveal itself over time, in essence, allowing the viewer to watch the world breathe in real time as they watch the video.

Chris Revelle

Wipe the Slate (2011)

Performance and digital video, 2:49:05

Chris Revelle earned his B.F.A. from Savannah College of Art and Designs and his M.F.A. from California Institute of the Arts. He currently lives and works in Atlanta, Georgia. In Wipe the Slate, Revelle claims solidarity with Iraqi academics by writing and rewriting the Brussels Tribunal’s appeal to help Iraq’s intellectuals. The Brussels Tribunal is a community of activists, intellectuals, and artists who organized a series of hearings to draw awareness to the systematic targeting of Iraq’s academics and intellectuals. The process of writing and erasure in this piece symbolize Revelle’s attempt to claim solidarity with Iraqi intellectuals and to draw attention to their erasure from society and history.