Digital Art Exhibitions at the E. Craig Wall Jr. Academic Center

Lisa Dahl

Under Water, 2013 

Digital video, live action, 5:05

Artist Statement: Using the symbol of the home as an idealistic icon, I explore the ideas we attach to home ownership as well as what these buildings evoke for us: from personal dreams to environmental concerns; urban planning to economic issues. Working in a variety of artistic media, I investigate the love-hate relationship I often have with the house by using playfulness and humor in my critiques. I see the house in an anthropomorphic way –a stand in for our diverse and complicated lives.

Named after the euphemistic term for owing more on your house than it is worth, this video takes a literal approach to that terminology in its treatment of these images from foreclosed real estate listings. Each house is printed on an inkjet printer and sprayed with water until the ink starts to run down the page. The resultant water damage erodes the facades while also referencing the aftermath of natural disasters.

The video was originally part of a larger installation that included a storefront space emulating a real estate office. The flyer listings, however, include in their text the unexpected addition of a memory of the lives of the fictional people these houses once provided shelter for–revealing an intimate story of these dwellings as private, personal homes.

Lisa Dahl received her BA from Bowdoin College and an MFA from the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University. She has exhibited her work at Mass MoCA, Hunter College, the NYC DOT Urban Art Program, and Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art, among many other venues nationally and internationally. In 2019, she was selected by Staten Island Arts for a Future Culture Creative Placemaking Grant as well as an Art Fund Grant. In 2006, she was selected for a Residency Fellowship and Travel Award by the MacDowell Colony.

View Under Water‘s project website by clicking here.

View the artist’s website by clicking here.

Kevin Frech

FOUNDATION AND EMPIRE, 2018 

HD Video, color, two-channel mono sound, 3:00

Artist Statement: My work examines the contradictions of contemporary society, where the rise of technology offers the promise of ease, luxury, and connection, yet it also complicates our lives, wastes resources, and alienates us from each other. I also think a lot about currency. Not merely in the sense of “money,” but also in the larger concepts of exchange and acceptance. What do we as people value today? And how do we assign those values? Our shared human commonality informs the central themes of my work. Even when discussing divisive topics such as global warming or the exploitation of labor, my questions are framed by how humans perceive these issues, and whether we can be made to sufficiently care. I’d like to believe that we can.

Kevin Frech received his BFA while studying at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and continued on to receive a Masters in Filmmaking from the Tisch School of Fine Arts, at New York University. Frech’s work explores contradictions existent in our contemporary society and attempts to make his viewers care about the issues proposed through his art. Frech’s work will often include visual tropes from contemporary culture to aid in a visual stimulation typically captured through time lapse videography. His work has been included in exhibitions and shows at the Barrett Art Center, New York, Arte Laguna, Italy, Storefront Media Gallery, Seattle, and now Davidson College.

Click here to view the artist’s website.

Ellen Mueller

Resist in Place, 2019 

Digital video, 1:54

Artist Statement: “To resist in place is to make oneself into a shape that cannot so easily be appropriated by a capitalist value system,” states author Jenny Odell. Much of my artistic practice begins by examining how capitalism affects everyday living. As a mode of resistance to the commercial attention economy, I am interested in the idea of re-training oneself (changing one’s shape) to pay closer and longer attention to seemingly non-commercial spaces, such as the sky, undeveloped land, and water. This type of playful and in-depth exploration is not profitable and resists the idea of monetizing each minute of every day.

In these videos, I engage with orientation, scale, reflection, and repetition in order to invite viewers to imaginatively play with these same spaces the next time they view them. This work invites questions about the human impact on these seemingly ‘natural’ or non-commercial spaces, such as the growing effects of climate change, or a lingering trail of condensation left in the sky by an airplane. The work also poses questions about privilege, highlighting who can and cannot afford to look at these particular spaces, and how this type of looking can act as a type of care and maintenance. [1]

Ellen Mueller is an interdisciplinary artist who explores the environment and larger social, economic, and political issues through video, collage, sculpture, performance art, and other media. Mueller has exhibited her work and held residencies nationally and internationally. She earned a BA in Theatre and Art, and a BS in Design Technology from Bemidji State University, and her MFA in Studio Art from the University of South Florida. Ellen Mueller was a member of the faculty at UMass Dartmouth, West Virginia Wesleyan College, and Colorado State University-Pueblo. She is now the director of the MFA Program at Minneapolis College of Art and Design (MCAD).

[1] https://ellenmueller.com/gallery/2020-2/resist-in-place/

David Sanchez Burr

Big Bad Anthropocene Machine, 2019 

Digital video, 18:00

Artist Statement: Influenced greatly by the seismic shift of migrating to the United States at an early age, my work is guided by the social, political, cultural, and economic dynamics that have evolved since the1980s. To research the depths by which art can demonstrate the spectacle of our time has been a long-term pursuit. Through site specific installations, time-based media and performance, I intentionally seek to create a complex blend of cacophony and harmonics to illustrate the times in which we live.

David Sanchez Burr began his experimental sound and visual work in Richmond, Virginia while studying at Virginia Commonwealth University. He has exhibited and performed his work widely at museums, art centers, cultural spaces, and many non- traditional venues and locations nationally and internationally. David interweaves pedagogy, curatorial projects, and his own work to examine the social, economic, and cultural implications of technology in the 21st century. He has received grants and awards from The Nevada Arts Council, The Media Arts Project, ISEA, the Art Production Fund and the National Endowment for the Arts. David Sanchez Burr has taught at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, University of Maryland, University College, and New Mexico Highlands University. He is an Assistant Professor of Sculpture and Expanded Media at Lake Forest College in Illinois

Click here to view the artist’s website.