Semblance, Beyond the Surface - Fall 2024
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Full Issue: Semblance, Beyond the Surface - Fall 2024
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[Articles]
- Willa Barry, "Solace: photography’s answer to art’s exclusion"
- Caitlyn Bains, "A reflection on Rene Magritte’s the eternally obvious and the female nude "
- Bowen Supple, "The Zeitz MoCAA museum"
- Xinyue Jin, "Nature, philosophy, and audience; an analysis of Shao Fan’s “In the Name of the Rabbit”"
- Barrett Walsh, "Nothing is as it seems: the distortion of reality through media"
- Emir R. Tali, "Göbeklitepe; deciphering a stone age oddity"
- Mia Hand, "The art of reinvention: Svetlana Stepanova’s transition from painter to printmaker"
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Item The art of reinvention: Svetlana Stepanova’s transition from painter to printmaker(2024-12-14) Hand, MiaArt can be an expedition into the intricate landscape of self-exploration, where each brushstroke and every creative decision reveals new facets of identity and personal insight. For Svetlana Stepanova, a sophomore in the College of Fine Arts at Boston University, painting has expanded her creative horizons for the past ten years: until this past semester. Although painting has been the cornerstone of Stepanova’s artistic identity, her latest venture into printmaking marks an exciting evolution in her practice. Stepanova’s journey from painter to printmaker reflects both the challenges and rewards of navigating different artistic processes, through her work, she skillfully balances thematic depth and textual details.Item Göbeklitepe; deciphering a stone age oddity(2024-12-14) Tali, Emir R.Göbeklitepe is an archeological site located in Southeastern Turkey and the site itself is a small mound situated in a flat landscape. It went unnoticed by almost everyone as a natural feature and was passed over by American archeologists in the 1960s as insignificant. Until 1994, when Klaus Schmidt, a German archeologist, noticed unusual T-shaped limestone pillars partially exposed on the surface and initiated a comprehensive excavation in collaboration with local archeologists. The process revealed a huge amount of unexpected information: multiple circular and oval structures were buried under the mound, each with massive stone pillars arranged in distinct patterns. The oldest layers have been dated back to around 9600 BCE—this predates Stonehenge by several millennia!Item Nothing is as it seems: the distortion of reality through media(2024-12-14) Walsh, BarrettWelcome to 2024; we are living in the digital age. Most of us wake up, look at our cell phones, and allow the virtual world to occupy the real one. Even though the screens used exist on a two-dimensional glass plane, we are pulled into their deeper dimensionality. Digital technology has permanently altered the structure and chemicals in our brains, leading to lower attention spans and pleasure (Pepperdine Boone Center). In the evolution of media, it has become harder to distinguish what is accurate from manipulation and to see how our minds are affected by the spread of ideologies.Item Nature, philosophy, and audience; an analysis of Shao Fan’s “In the Name of the Rabbit”(2024-12-14) Jin, XinyueShao Fan, a celebrated contemporary Chinese artist, is renowned for his ability to blend tradition with modernity. Born in 1964 into a family of Beijing artists, Shao’s upbringing shaped his early exposure to the arts. Over the past forty years, his practice has encompassed a variety of mediums, from painting and sculpture to architecture and garden design. One of Fan’s most striking bodies of work is his series titled “In the Name of the Rabbit,” which reflects his deep contemplation of time, nature, and the human-animal relationship.Item The Zeitz MoCAA museum(2024-12-14) Supple, BowenWhen a building is left to ruin, we are confronted by the decision of how to treat its future. Options can range from costly reconstruction to abandonment. Few approaches, however, are as sustainable as adaptive reuse—revitalizing an existing structure and breathing new life into its foundation, rather than letting it waste away. This is the mission of the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (MOCAA) in Cape Town, South Africa. While displaying the largest collection of contemporary African art, its structural backbone is salvaged from a decommissioned grain silo, transforming it into a monument for modern art and green urban renewal.Item A reflection on Rene Magritte’s the eternally obvious and the female nude(2024-12-14) Bains, CaitlynRene Magritte’s The Eternally Obvious, created in 1930, is currently displayed in the Menil Collection. It depicts the frontal nude of a woman, cut into five isolated paintings that serve to create the entire full-length portrait. The way the piece is mounted onto an acrylic sheet is meant to give the piece an almost life-size view of a woman, and that we as the viewer can stand in front of her almost as if she exists in the space of the real world. By deconstructing the nude, Magritte creates a nonconsensual three-way relationship between him, as the artist, us, the viewer as the unwilling voyeur, and the subject as the person being preyed on.Item Solace: photography’s answer to art’s exclusion(2024-12-14) Barry, WillaWith the ice of the Cold War still frozen solid, Sam Abell sat in his Moscow hotel and captured the essence of photography as art: its power. Abell faced Moscow’s Red Square for twelve hours to create the composition for his photograph Pears and Red Square (1) in his series “Tolstoy,” commemorating the Russia that Tolstoy immortalized.Item Semblance, Beyond the Surface - Fall 2024(2024-12-14) Barry, Willa; Bains, Caitlyn; Supple, Bowen; Jin, Xinyue; Walsh, Barrett; Tali, Emir R.; Hand, Mia