‘Empire and Its Discontents’ and more at Tufts; ‘Re-View’ and visiting faculty at Harvard; GASP’s Fourth Anniversary
By RANDI HOPKINS | September 3, 2008
Saira Wasim, Demockery |
“Empire and Its Discontents,” "Do-Ho Suh: Paratrooper Ii,” and “Contrapuntal Lines” at Tufts University Art Gallery, 40R Talbot Ave, Medford | September 11–November 23 | 617.627.3518
“Re-View” at Arthur M. Sackler Museum, 485 Broadway, Cambridge | Opens September 13 | 617.495.9400
“Visiting Faculty Show” at Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, 24 Quincy St, Cambridge | September 15–October 23 | 617.495.3251
“The Tongue Of Shadows” at GASP, 362 Boylston St, Brookline | September 12–October 18 | 617.418.4308 |
This is the 30th anniversary of Edward Said’s influential book Orientalism, in which the post-colonial theorist, literary scholar, and political activist described and criticized persistent Eurocentric prejudice underlying Western attitudes toward the Arab-Islamic world. In commemoration of Said’s work, Tufts University Art Gallery presents “EMPIRE AND ITS DISCONTENTS,” which opens September 15 with work by 11 artists tied to previously colonized regions in the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia. Kenneth Tin-Kin Hung’s “pop-up” sculptures of the current political landscape offer a satirical look at globalization, capitalism, and democracy; Saira Wasim uses techniques of Mughal miniature painting to depict contemporary world politics, bringing in such recognizable figures as Condoleezza Rice and Ronald McDonald. Also opening September 15 at Tufts: Korean-born Do-Ho Suh explores individual identity in an increasingly global society in the looming installation “DO-HO SUH: PARATROOPER II,” and “CONTRAPUNTAL LINES: RANIA MATAR AND BUTHINA ABU MILHELM” brings together work by a Boston-based Lebanese photographer and an Arab-Israeli sculptor, both looking at ordinary life as lived under extraordinary circumstances.With Harvard’s Fogg and Busch-Reisinger Museums closed for major renovation (until 2013!), the nearby Arthur M. Sackler Museum steps in to host “RE-VIEW,” which, opening September 13, features works from all three museums shown together for the first time. Aiming to display major and familiar works as well as some surprises, “Re-View” includes European and American art since 1900, Asian and Islamic art from 5000 BC to the present, and work in all media, mainly in the Western tradition, from antiquity to the late 19th century.
Meanwhile, Harvard’s Carpenter Center continues to present changing contemporary exhibitions. Opening September 15, the “VISITING FACULTY SHOW” boasts work by an impressive new crew: Sanford Biggers, Taylor Davis, Greg Halpern, David Lobser, and Catherine Lord.
GASP, the experimental venue on Route 9 that is slowly but surely taking up more and more of its block, celebrates its fourth anniversary with “THE TONGUE OF SHADOWS,” which opens September 12. Curated by Gilles Daigneault, the show includes installation-based work by Quebec artists Catherine Bolduc, Danielle Sauve, and Louise Viger that’s described as sharing an interest in “those strange doubles of life that are shadows.”
On the Web
Tufts University Art Gallery: www.ase.tufts.edu/gallery
Arthur M. Sackler Museum: www.harvardartmuseum.org
Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts: www.ves.fas.harvard.edu
GASP: www.g-a-s-p.net
Related:
2009: The year in art, Live at five, Beauty and the East, More 
- 2009: The year in art
The year started off with a kick in the teeth when, in January, Brandeis University announced plans to shutter its Rose Art Museum and sell off its masterpieces.
- Live at five
The Tufts University Art Gallery has taken the off-season opportunity to celebrate its year-round neighbors.
- Beauty and the East
Gallery-goers with an affinity for art from Asia will have plenty of reason for excitement with a handful of enticing shows this winter.
- Across the Universe
Intuition tells us that certain places are powerful, that certain spaces are sacred, and that we are sometimes in the presence of cosmic energy.
- Return to the edge of the world
Photography and new media loom large on the horizon in 2007, with cameras pointed in every direction.
- Beautiful disaster
What we think of as “progress” — urban development, industrialization — has been proceeding at a rapid rate in China over the past decade, with significant environmental and human consequences.
- Tempo tantrum
In 2008, the fourth dimension, time, steps to the fore in the art world.
- Fine China
In the fall of 1947, a small group of senior students and faculty from Boston’s Museum School and the Massachusetts College of Art held the first meeting of the Boston Printmakers.
- RISD redefined
Rhode Island School of Design’s new Chace Center is the physical embodiment of the 131-year-old institution’s effort to rebrand itself as a more open place.
- The news from No Place
Saya Woolfalk first grabbed people's attention around 2005, with playful-serious installations and videos in which performers masked in bright, patchwork fabric costumes of cartoon leaves and long swinging dreadlocks jumped around small rooms decorated like cartoon paradises.
- Fresh fruit and vegetables
The bleakest months of New England winter are ahead of us, so the prospect of leaving your toasty house to see art may not be at the top of your to-do list.
- Less
Topics:
Museum And Gallery
, Education, Harvard University, Tufts University, More
, Education, Harvard University, Tufts University, Higher Education, Condoleezza Rice, Visual Arts, Colleges and Universities, Cultural Institutions and Parks, Museums, Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Less
