Exploring concepts such as diaspora, worldbuilding, self-mystery and absurdity, At What Cost is a reconciliation with the nonlinear
expanse of happenings. At times, the work confronts lived experiences with a gritty vulnerability and at others, it suspends the world as we know it to comment on the repercussions of existence and quest to create space for oneself. Formally, the artists create with attention to the sentimentality of refined craft (Hill, Koo) and in contrast, the surrealism of new-age visual anarchy (Johnson,Wallach). With mediums ranging from ceramic (hooz, Hodson, Xu), Super 8 film (Faulkner, Saucedo), and etched copper plates (Thomas) to AR activated imagery (Marsh) and digitally generated abstractions (Johnson), At What Cost explores the vast narrative properties of materials both traditional and contemporary.
The works of various artists in the show work in conceptual conversation with one another. Del Signore, Bun and Feng collectively navigate tangential notions of lineage and familial tetherings while Faulker and Bookhard investigate the viserality of one’s psychological past. Other connections can be made between the practices of Marsh and Wu which consider how space, limilality, and healing processes play a role in selfhood through forms of illustrative new media. Collectively, At What Cost incarnates the uncanny truths exposed at moments of reflection, and existential as well as material abstraction.
expanse of happenings. At times, the work confronts lived experiences with a gritty vulnerability and at others, it suspends the world as we know it to comment on the repercussions of existence and quest to create space for oneself. Formally, the artists create with attention to the sentimentality of refined craft (Hill, Koo) and in contrast, the surrealism of new-age visual anarchy (Johnson,Wallach). With mediums ranging from ceramic (hooz, Hodson, Xu), Super 8 film (Faulkner, Saucedo), and etched copper plates (Thomas) to AR activated imagery (Marsh) and digitally generated abstractions (Johnson), At What Cost explores the vast narrative properties of materials both traditional and contemporary.
The works of various artists in the show work in conceptual conversation with one another. Del Signore, Bun and Feng collectively navigate tangential notions of lineage and familial tetherings while Faulker and Bookhard investigate the viserality of one’s psychological past. Other connections can be made between the practices of Marsh and Wu which consider how space, limilality, and healing processes play a role in selfhood through forms of illustrative new media. Collectively, At What Cost incarnates the uncanny truths exposed at moments of reflection, and existential as well as material abstraction.
Exhibition Statement by Storm Bria-Rose Bookhard, Chief Curator.
Thank you to Curatorial Committee: hooz, Jing Wei Feng and Visiting Curator and Essayist: Adrianne Ramsey
“The Beginning of The Next”
By Adrianne Ramsey
By Adrianne Ramsey
At What Cost is an apt title for this year’s BFA thesis exhibition at the USC Roski School of Art and Design. It is daunting to respond creatively to catastrophe and the apocalyptic atmosphere that the world has so recently held. However, the beauty of cultural and artistic production is that it so often creates a space for us to not only linger and reflect, but move through hard times together. The participating artists had the drive to create work despite many obstacles, as this was the first school year to return to in-person learning.
The new decade has so far been a transformative tornado of collapse and seismic grief. All of us were forced to shift and bend every aspect of our daily lives in order to survive and later heal from the trauma of the lockdowns due to the global outbreak of COVID-19. Although the ongoing pandemic has reached the tentative phase of the “new normal”, no one has come out unscathed. While some have been relatively protected, most of us have experienced loss in some form. Political tensions, racial injustice, and environmental concerns have also dominated today’s climate, and contemporary conversations have shifted to determining how to expand access for all and dismantling problematic systems of power. While the world has been relatively open for over a year, most have found it is practically impossible to rush forward and forget all that has happened. If anything, the las two years have shown us that the things that we may have assumed were fixed are in fact entirely exchangeable. Life can truly change in an instant.
The artists participating in At What Cost have created works that invite us to linger with the gravity of not only the unfolding present, but the future of the unknown. Their works combine heaviness and lightness, hovering in graceful tension but not breaking or bursting at the seams. Many of the works unsurprisingly deal with transitions of mental health and mourning, but also encapsulate joy and pleasure, yearning and desire, family relations, and a hope to find a sense of belonging. The intentionality and controlled chaos of these thesis projects are a poetic metaphor for the collective phrase of these times: “Are you okay?” How do we as a society hold it together, until we are not able to? How do we pick ourselves up and dust ourselves off, when all we want to do is close our eyes for just one second?
The beauty of the exhibited works is that they invoke the fragile safety that so many feel, yet also remind us of the excitement that we can experience while viewing art. The works that comprise the exhibition are mainly studio-based art practices – painting, photography, video, textiles, sculpture, and media – but when put together, the atmosphere elicits the hope that this extraordinary moment in time can help us discover what shapes our collective experience of the world.
Transformation is undoubtably the act of remembering an isolated action of choice and the impact it carries. The global pandemic has exposed the isolation at the core of our lives, so the question is, how are we able to truthfully asses how we want to re-enter the world? What do we need to change so that none of us remain left behind? The artwork exhibited could be considered post-COVID art, but I would argue that it is art that looks at the temporality of existence and the cruising limbo that we have realized we truly live in. The pandemic, the crippled global economy, and the Summer 2020 uprising against racial inequality simply exposed the ugly truths that always laid on the surface, and forced us to realize that we run this marathon that we know as life on our own. There is a lot of resilience and care that this BFA class took in creating their projects and getting them viewer ready. Familiar yet unplaceable, the elusiveness of the content that comes through each work positions viewers to gaze through the proscenium of their own experiences and ponder – “Have I been here before?”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR AND CO-CURATOR
Adrianne Ramsey is an independent curator and arts editor based in Los
Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area. Her curatorial practice focuses
on representation, inclusivity, and highlighting artists of diverse racial,
queer, and cultural backgrounds. She is an MA Candidate in Curatorial
Practices and the Public Sphere at USC, from where she also holds a BA
in Art History.