Student Picks: ALWAYS CONTAINER, SOMETIMES CONTAINED

Student Picks is a SCMA program in which Smith students organize their own one-day art show using our collection of works on paper. This month’s student curator and guest blogger Emily Kim '15 discusses her show “ALWAYS CONTAINER, SOMETIMES CONTAINED” which will be on view FRIDAY, December 5 from 12-4 PM in the Cunningham Center for the Study of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs. We hope to see you here!

Architecture today is often seen less as an art form and more as articulated spaces tailored to human needs.  It can be hard to see the beauty in a glass curtain wall skyscraper or a cookie-cutter motel when compared to, say, a Van Gogh. 

^{Juan Laurent. French, 1816–1892. Interior of the Mosque Cordova, ca. 1860s. Albumen print in bound photograph album. Purchased with Hillyer-Tryon-Mather Fund, with funds given in memory of Nancy Newhall (Nancy Parker, class of 1930) and in honor of Beaumont Newhall, and with funds given in honor of Ruth Wedgwood Kennedy. Photography by Petegorsky/Gipe. SC 1982.38.1224.}

But being able to find and capture the beauty of a seemingly generic space is an art in and of itself.  Architecture is (or if not, should be) first and foremost about functionality.  That being said it is still an art form - an outlet for creative minds to rethink how we live our everyday lives and how we can improve them.

^{Unknown artist after Katsushika Hokusai. Japanese. Storm, early 20th century. Woodcut printed in color on paper. Bequest of Henry L. Seaver. Photography by Petegorsky/Gipe. SC 1976.54.461.}

Always Container, Sometimes Contained attempts to celebrate “the box” as an art piece, a stimulating and intriguing ode to something often thought of as a simple "container."