About the Event
TIED IN NOTS
Mavis C. Pitman Exhibition Award
Ling DeBellis
Christine Gjoerup
Catherine Hettler
Alissa Kono
On view Tuesday-Saturday: March 3-31
Moody Center for the Arts
Projects located: 2nd Floor & Outdoor Patio
LING DEBELLIS
Grapefruit is a mixed-media light + sound, projection + film, narrative + photography immersive installation that calls out society’s perverse and deeply ingrained sexualization and fetishization of Asian women. From Orientalism to “Me So Horny” to current sexual violence against the Asian female body, we are always “having a conversation” on something, but I want to actually, really talk about the taboo things, the things we shy away from. SEX. I want to know why talking about sex makes us uncomfortable. I want to know why I don’t feel uncomfortable talking about sex. Maybe it’s because I’m also an evolutionary biologist and sex is somewhat clinical. But maybe it’s also personal. As an Asian adoptee, how did I come to exist? How did we all come to exist? Sex is full of pain and pleasure, beauty and disgust. And why, why, why aren’t we talking about it?
Location: 2nd floor, Media Lab #236
CHRISTINE GJOERUP
Sometimes I feel as though photography is too consumed by an ideal of photographing “pretty things” as they are only a minute and unrepresentative fraction of the human experience. The persistent passage of time leaves us with perpetually-growing piles of both literal and figurative rubbish. How might one situate rubbish in the realm of aesthetics? Through spotlighting traces of discarded objects, Leftovers explores this ever-pertinent visual conversation. These photographs seek to recognise the unorthodox beauty of putrid, broken, and rotting objects.
Location: 2nd floor, Lovett Lounge
CATHERINE HETTLER
when Mother goes to pick oysters in the island shade
the baby, left alone to watch the house
at the sound of the lullaby that the ocean sings
slips softly into sleep, his head pillowed by an arm
though the baby still sleeps peacefully
her heart races at the sound of the seagull’s cry
and unfinished basket of oysters upon her head
Mother sprints home along the sandy path
• • •
The pearl dozes, nestled safely in the soft flesh of the oyster. He is lulled by the calming song that weaves and sighs just within consciousness. He tries not to think too much about the lyrics; they often bring him to tears for reasons he is too young to articulate. Rubbing his still sleepy eyes, he instead drinks in the stars that glitter eternally above him, like so many gleaming moths fluttering just out of reach. The oyster murmurs inviting sweetness to him, calling him back to bed. Her voice pinches his cheeks, tickles his sides, kisses his forehead. But still he extends his arm toward the far stars, enthralled. Stretching, reaching, yearning.
Inspired by a Korean lullaby, Shhh is a sculptural centerpiece that references both the welcoming comfort of maternal protection and the wandering child’s instinctual pursuit of independence.
Location: 2nd floor, Lovett Lounge
ALISSA KONO
Welcome to your Pity Party. You are the only guest in attendance, so allow yourself to sit down, look in the mirror, and indulge in feeling sorry for yourself.
Pity Party is an installation that seeks to highlight the shared experience of wallowing in self-pity. Attending a somber “party-for-one,” each visitor enters amongst droopy balloons and watches themselves in a mirror. The installation pokes fun at how we seek solace in negativity and celebrate our sorrows. Furthermore, in the context of the global pandemic, the space also replicates the restrictions of physical isolation on social connections and support networks – hinting at how self-pity can serve as a small taste of compassion and understanding in periods of loneliness.
Location: Ground floor, outdoors near North entrance
This exhibition has been underwritten by the Mavis C. Pitman Endowment and the Department of Visual and Dramatic Arts. For more information, please visit arts.rice.edu or call 713-348-4882.
