Letter from the Editor:
You step into a museum. The bright, open, and didactic space encourages you to wander through and allow yourself a moment of introspection or inspiration.
Although museums are expertly designed with subtle cues for an attendee to be guided through, every person’s experience is their own. Some people sit down and study an old master. Others take selfies in front of modern pop art. Not only is the act of engaging with a museum up to the individual, but the ability to interpret the art in your own way is an act of power and autonomy.
In this print issue, our shoots celebrate this act of autonomy by re-interpreting art movements from the past, present, and future. We invite you to wander through our Exhibition.
The journey begins with MMXXI, where we bring art to life within the UMMA. Inspired by the Baroque period, the dresses drip with maximalism, as the ornate patterns accentuate regality and evoke hints of King Louis XIV’s Palace of Versailles.
The regality shifts to Realism in Naturally Opposed. While certain art movements prioritize glamour and aesthetics above all, we renounce this notion by representing daily life. In the shoot’s accompanying features writer William Neumaier states in Realizing Realism that “while Realism isn’t always ‘realistic’ in the visual sense of how we perceive things, it is real in the way that we understand them; and it can be quite refreshing to realize the Realism that’s all around us” (19).
While reality may sometimes be as beautiful as the ideal, the beauty of art itself may be the fact that we perceive it in any way we choose. Throughout millenia, humans’ cherishment towards art has led to its immortalization. In Heba Malik’s A Life Lived, Malik converses between three paintings and delves into themes of childhood, love, aging, and memory.
The journey of seeking out meaning continues in Freedom of the Abstract, where simplicity and boldness are what bring beauty to this Collaborative project. In The Beauty of a Blank Canvas, features writer Annie Malek states that “while complex and colorful beauty can be more obvious, searching for simplistic beauty can be more effortful because you have to first detach yourself from society’s beauty standards in order to see it” (28).
Beauty in simplicity carries on into Tableau in Red, Blue and Yellow. Inspired by the avant-garde art movement De Stijl (translating to “the style” in Dutch), we took a playful approach to abstraction with existing geometric, primarycolored shapes.
While we experience the COVID-19 pandemic and stay in quarantine, a rise in individuality and creative, nonjudgemental
expression has led to dedicated and earnest work. In Tiara Partsch’s Let’s Make Bad Art, Partsch examines how art has become “a form of community healing” (43).
This rise in experimental self-expression and experimentation is especially prevalent among youth culture. Tempo, short for Contemporary, expresses Gen Z’s rebellion against traditional norms of beauty and fashion standards.
While we remain socially-distant, we are relating to our bodies in a different way as something to relish, embrace, and celebrate. A rise in self-documentation and embracing our sexuality and bodies leads to a rise in self-confidence in Patience Young’s piece Exhibitionism: Nude in the Digital Age.
Although we are making great progress with our self image and the celebration of diverse bodies, many artists still suffer from self-doubt; the voice inside of their heads nagging them that they can be better. What does this demon, inner saboteur look like? In <h1>Cyberpunk</h1>, we interpret them as futuristic punksters; their direct gazes challenge the viewer to reinterpret what is art.
Although it is easy to get into a bad headspace about your own art and creativity, art can be a healing connection to oneself. In Tahani Almujahid’s Dreaming of the Ordinary, Almujahid interprets modern Yemini art to connect with her heritage. “I dream this dream constantly, and it always ends the same. I am always there — where my roots begin and connect in a painting, as if I am a plant that has absorbed the elixir of love and the ordinary” (65).
Finally, we project ourselves 2000 years into the future in Paroxysm. The distorting uncertainty is visually unleashed into a surreal conversation and balance of what is real versus what is not real. Even though we will not be around, what will last of us? What is our legacy? It is inevitable that the artist will die. But the art endures, and the art will live in and among us. This print issue is a celebration of the art and its makers, and one of the many examples of how creativity and art will always persist, even though we cannot.
–Natalie Guisinger, Editor-in-Chief