Spring Exhibitions
Paradox in the American Desert: The Salton Sea
Myla Fay ’11
May–June 2011
Myla produced this set of three books after visiting the Salton Sea in December 2010. The books are a time line, a field guide, and a book of stories–broad, specific, and personal.
I hope that these books help clarify some of the fascinating and paradoxical land use around the Salton Sea, and that they reflect to some extent the complex assortment of environmental, social, and political forces that determine a place.
– Myla Fay ’11
Coming Back: New Visions of New Orleans
April–June 2011
This year Kim Smith, Associate Professor of Political Science and Environmental Studies, worked with Carleton’s ACT Center to develop an alternative spring break program in New Orleans. The trip entailed working on service projects related to environmental and social justice issues and meeting and talking to activists and policy makers who work on these issues. Students took photographs during the trip, and each submitted one for inclusion in this exhibit.
Cultures in Counterpoint: Music, Image, and Text in Medieval Iberia
April–June 2011
Gould Library Special Collections
With the facsimile of Alfonso X ‘el Sabio’s’ Cantigas de Santa Maria at its heart, this exhibition brings together manuscripts in facsimile from Spain, North Africa, and the Middle East to explore in counter-point the three monotheistic religious traditions that held sway in the peninsula during this period: Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. In its rich imagery of musical performance, the Cantigas gestures visually towards another dynamic field of cultural interaction—that of musical composition and instrumentation—that the Rose Ensemble helps to bring to life today.
The Rose Ensemble will visit Yaron Klein’s Classical Arabic Literature in the Making, Stacy Beckwith’s Jewish Collective Memory and Victoria Morse’s Crusade, Contact, and Exchange in the Medieval Mediterranean.
Métis/sage: Visually Translating the Métis Experience in Canada
March–June, 2011
Collection of the Artist
How do you picture the Métis, the descendants of Canadian franco-aboriginal unions? Is it with a historical figure, like Louis Riel the rebel leader hung for treason in 1885, or with an image of the refugee Road Allowance People or the proud Flower Bead People? The title of this exhibition, Métis/sage, from the French word métissage, suggests a wise (sage) coexistence of elements otherwise foreign to each other. In an attempt to depict the Métis in twenty-first century, artist David Garneau combines European, and North American art, comics, and traditional Métis beading into a contemporary painting style. Students of FREN 362 Transnational Writers in Quebec will provide background information for the exhibit by creating bilingual labels and podcasts.
Rights, Not Revolution: The Women’s Movement & Government Reform in 1970s America
March–June, 2011
Gould Library Government Documents
This exhibition of Government Documents complements EveryBody!, an exhibition of work by artists and activists engaged with the Women’s Health Movement, 1969-2011, on display at Carleton’s Art Gallery until May 8.
Fitzgerald and Hemingway’s Women: Translation Through Text and Typography
Kale Zicafoose ’11
Digital Printing on Fabric
Collection of the Artist
This installation is a result of an in depth analysis of Daisy Buchanan and Jordan Baker from The Great Gatsby and Brett Ashley from The Sun Also Rises and a close examination of the critical feminist scholarship that surrounds these literary figures, and is part of an English Project Comps on the role and interpretation of women in the work of Hemingway and Fitzgerald. – Kale Zicafoose
Botanical Illustrations
March–May 2011
Collection of the Artist
Jacque Oman ’11 contributes beautiful watercolors of irises and orchids to this miniature exhibition on the second floor of the library. Irises and Orchids: A Winter Study, is the culmination of a ten-week independent study that Jacque completed with Dan Bruggeman, Senior Lecturer in Art.
Books filled with botanical illustrations accompany Jacque’s watercolors, and appear in the accompanying case.
Winter Exhibitions
City Views: Selections from the Thomas L. Hughes Map Collection
The German Map Collection of Charles Frederick Schlaberg and Thomas L. Hughes consists of 42 maps by famous cartographers from the 15th to the 18th century. The maps focus on the region of Brandenburg during these centuries, and the collection also includes city views and bird’s-eye views of several German cities. Many of the maps are hand colored and include coats of arms and decorative cartouches.
Charted Course: Fred Hagstrom & Linda Rossi
This exhibition features the work of art department faculty members Fred Hagstrom and Linda Rossi. Both artists dearly treasure the opportunities for the close observation and experience of nature, but worry that opportunities for such direct experience of the natural world are increasingly rare. Both, however, believe in the power of beautiful images to increase our sense of wonder and appreciation of nature. This exhibition features works of Hagstrom and Rossi inspired by scientific illustrations found in antique books and classroom wall charts. See images of the exhibition.
Images for the Imagination: Scientific Illustration from Gould Library
Rows of candy-colored speckled eggs, the ruffled edge of a shell, the wispy, trailing tentacles of a jellyfish: the illustrations in these books both examine the structure of natural forms and illuminate their beauty. This selection of books were chosen from Gould Library’s general collections to complement the exhibition of work by Fred Hagstrom and Linda Rossi.
Many Hands: Artist Collectives Make Books Selected from Gould Library’s Collections
This exhibition features the work of three artist collectives: the Zero group, active in the late 1950s and early 1960s; Ant Farm, active from 1968 to 1978 when the collective’s studio burned down in a fire; and Critical Art Ensemble, which formed in 1987 and is still active. Texthypertext, Critical Art Ensemble, 1989.
Fall 2011 Exhibitions
Al-Mutanabbi Street Project Broadside
Traveling exhibition of broadsides commemorating the 2007 car bombing of Baghdad’s al-Mutanabbi Street.Exhibition on loan from South Florida State University, Jaffe Center for Book Arts. This exhibition will be featured as part of the Mid-America Print Council conference.
The Twenty Views of Dundas
“The Twenty Views of Dundas” is a collaborative print project to honor the history of the small town of Dundas, Minnesota. This exhibition was organized by ArtOrg, Northfield. This exhibition will be featured as part of the Mid-America Print Council conference.
Imprints of the Imagination: Scenes from Burmese Life Through Youth’s Lenses
Over the summer, Khant Khant Kyaw ’11 organized a community photography project in Burma, working with twenty-nine low-income youth in a monastic school and a public school in Yangon and Magway states. This exhibition features a selection of the photographs taken by the students and Khant Khant Kyaw.
2010 Minnesota Book Artist Award Winner: Chip Schilling
This exhibition featured the work Wilber H. Chip Schilling, winner of the 2010 Book Artist Award. Schilling is the artist, designer, printer, illustrator, bookbinder, and publisher at Indulgence Press, which he founded in 1992. His books and artwork have been exhibited internationally and can be found in over 100 collections including the New York Public Library, the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, the Getty Center, the British Library, the Whitney, and the Library of Congress. To learn more about Schilling’s work please visit the website of Indulgence Press.