Student Picks: Human Connections - Manifestations of the Mundane

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 Amelia Yeoh Jia Min '17 discusses her show “Human Connections: Manifestations of the Mundane” which will be on view TOMORROW, Friday, November 1 from 12-4 PM in the Cunningham Center for the Study of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs. We hope to see you here!

This exhibition brings our ordinary lifestyles into the limelight. I was inspired at the impact mundane images had on human perception. How we perceive things differs from each individual and I wanted to recreate that experience by playing around with color, geometry and space in each image. These bring a sense of ambiguity and a unique experience for the viewer. The simplicity of the mundane is deceptive, beautiful, painful and all the things you perceive it to be.

woman wearing a white coat stands in front of a storefront in the street

^{Jerome Liebling. American, 1924–2011. Printed by Ned Gray. Sunday Morning, Monessen, Pennsylvania, 1984. C-Print. Purchased. Photography by Petegorsky/Gipe. SC 1988.22.1.}

These series of images is a journey of exploring human connections through the mundane. I chose to display photographs because I wanted to capture real moments in time. Through the window of reality, one gets a true sense of human connections developed through different perspectives of the characters and the photographer.

woman's hand and man's hand on table with vase in center

^{Lorna Simpson. American, b. 1961. stopped speaking to each other from Details, 1996. Photogravure with silkscreen text on Somerset 300 lb. paper. Purchased with the Elizabeth Halsey Dock, class of 1933, Fund and the Carol Ramsey Chandler Fund. Photography by Petegorsky/Gipe. SC 2012.6.8.}

As I spent my time in New York City during fall break, I was inspired to feature Lorna Simpsons works. Her cropped-out style photographs reveal a sense of intimacy while also obscuring the characters’ historical, cultural and gender backgrounds. The themes manifested through these personal lives were perhaps issues that were central to Simpson's experiences growing up in New York City. She evokes this calming sense of mystery that contrasts with the hustle and bustle of the city life. As Simpson uses an intimate approach, other works also challenge conventional thought and perception through color and geometry. Interestingly enough Martin Parr achieves this same goal by using humor.

beach, walkway visible in back left with lights, small building and people, man wearing jacket walking toward water in center holding a bag, rusty tank at left edge with woman on her stomach on a white blanket sunbathing topless, a blond child in pink bathing suit crouching beside her holding a sand pail, two other pails and a shovel are in the foreground, a blue and white striped towel hangs on a foreground rail with shoes and pail beneath it, a blue mule lies near a plastic bag in the sand below the towel, red shoes, a beach bag, black shoes and sunscreen are on the ground behind the sunbather

^{Martin Parr. English, b. 1952. New Brighton, Merseyside from The Last Resort, ca. 1983-1986 negative; 2005 print. Photogravure with silkscreen text on Somerset 300 lb. paper. Purchased with the Josephine A. Stein, class of 1927, Fund in honor of the class of 1927. Photography by Petegorsky/Gipe. SC 2006.7.}

Student Picks: Human Connections - Manifestations of the Mundane

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