SVSU Art Faculty Exhibit- Rebecca Zeiss

Rebecca Zeiss

Resonance of The Machinist, Untitled VI

Ultraviolet Printing Ink on Brushed Aluminum

2012

Professor Rebecca Zeiss’s piece Resonance of The Machinist, Untitled VI focuses on a single key still in its lock, and in the background a workbench. The image overall has an almost purplish tint that adds to the depth and tonal values of the image. In her piece, Zeiss creates layers of depth starting with the key and then to the bottom of the image to the layers of tools and equipment. The image is also large scale, as it invites the viewer in with it’s brushed aluminum shiny surface that reflects light, much like early daguerreotypes when photography first began.

As part of the faculty show Zeiss and the other faculty members were asked to prepare an artist statement to not only add to the meaning of their work but to also help students understand their process and perspective.

In her artist statement, Zeiss writes,

We all have expectations of what things should look like and we assume the camera will render to use those expectations. While one would consider camera optics to be revealing, they also may be used as a device of concealment. It is through the use of these optical choices that allow my work to present shifting visual illusions and allusions. This created incongruous space gives a sense of permitting real time and remembered time to cross paths. 

Through these trace images of objects which reference their culturally assigned historical context and draw from the aura of these remembered archetypes; we collectively understand, assign signifiers, and assemble the narratives to this investigation of cultural expectations and domestic space.

 Overall, the image has a feeling of antiquity much like the rest of Zeiss’s images in the SVSU Art Faculty Exhibit. To see more of Zeiss’s work including it’s sister piece, Resonance of The Machinist, Untitled II and Solicitor, please stop in and see the show continuing until February 7^th.

Alison Bur

Gallery Assistant

University Art Gallery

Saginaw Valley State University

SVSU Art Faculty Exhibit: Work by Professor Shaun Bangert

Concubine, Courtesans, Call Girls & Madams: A History of Sex Work, by Shaun Bangert

The Saginaw Valley State University Art Faculty Exhibit gives students of the art department the opportunity to experience the artwork of their professors and instructors, and showcases the wide variety of talent amongst the art faculty.  Painting, photography, ceramic, and digital media are all included in the exhibit, as well as a historical installation by Professor Shaun Bangert. However, the historical topic may not be what students expect. Bangert’s installation highlights the history of prostitution.

Titled Concubines, Courtesans, Call Girls & Madams: A History of Sex Work, the installation is made of hanging and rotating images of famous women of these titles. On the reverse of these images is information on who these women were, when they lived, and what they were famous for. The depictions vary from painted portraiture to modern photography, and convey the ‘world’s oldest profession’ through varying attitudes “depending on the culture, religious beliefs, and social conditions of the time.” In the center of the rotating images and attached to the gallery wall is a small red box with a slit in it, inviting viewers to an up-close peep show.

The purpose of the installations is not to promote prostitution, says Bangert, “but to illustrate the range of the profession, and question whether the criminalization of such an age-old occupation should, or can, be eradicated.”

The SVSU Art Faculty Exhibit will be on display until February 7th. For gallery hours visit the SVSU University Art Gallery webpage at svsu.edu/artgallery.




Amy Gibas
Gallery Assistant
University Art Gallery
Saginaw Valley State University