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(01/09/12 2:32am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Antonio Bolfo’s exhibit “IMPACT” is on display at Pictura Gallery this month, showing life in the notoriously dangerous South Bronx housing projects in New York. Bolfo took pictures from the perspective of the rookie police officers who are assigned to the area, attempting to show the cops’ humanity. And he would know — Bolfo used to be one of them.Bolfo’s switch from cop to photographer is not entirely random, he said. In high school, the Manhattan native focused his attention on art and drawing, and pursued it further at the Rhode Island School of Design. Bolfo became the senior animator at Harmonix, the video game development company responsible for games such as “Guitar Hero” and “Rock Band.”But after the Sept. 11 attacks, everything changed, he said.“I love Manhattan, and I didn’t understand why anyone would want to attack my city,” Bolfo said. “So I started getting an itch.” Bolfo decided to become a cop and, four days after graduating from the Police Academy, was sent to Operation Impact, a rookie-only unit located in Police Service Area 7 in the South Bronx.The South Bronx is often considered one of the poorest, most crime-ridden neighborhoods in America, and Operation Impact sends rookies to face some of the strongest, smartest and most dangerous people.Bolfo said many rookies began with a sense of optimism to better society, but communities like the South Bronx shattered that idea pretty quickly. After two years at PSA7, Bolfo found himself returning to his roots, and instead of doing the police work, he wanted to take photos of it.“It started to feel more important and useful, and it was a fusion of everything I had come to love,” Bolfo said. Bolfo started the aptly-named project “IMPACT” in which he followed the 30 Operation Impact rookies around the housing projects. However, he couldn’t take photos in his police uniform, so he would go to the housing projects in civilian clothes.“I was respected there as a solid cop who was always the first one to the scene and at the bottom of the pile, so when I started taking photos, I relied heavily on that element of respect and trust,” Bolfo said.But the cops had one condition: No flash photography. Because most of the criminal activity occurred at night, Bolfo had to learn to manipulate his camera settings to make the photos visible in low light.But in the high-stress situations he often found himself witnessing, Bolfo found another limitation.“I realized that I could escalate a scene just by being there — people were wilder when they saw me with my camera,” Bolfo said. “So I’d hide it in my jacket, pop it out for a second to snap a photo, and then stuff it back in.”What would be an uncomfortable and stressful way to work for some came more naturally to Bolfo. “I related to these guys. I was one of them,” Bolfo said. “I knew what they were feeling when they encountered horrible things, so I knew what I wanted to communicate with each picture I took.”Bolfo’s intention was to move past what it’s like to be an Operation Impact cop to showing the humanity of those who work the housing projects. “You always see cops with this emotional shield and monotonicity, but each one of them is affected by what they see,” Bolfo said. “It was very personal and important for me to show the humanity in each of the cops, especially in the rookies who hadn’t developed that emotional shield yet.”But that’s not to say that Bolfo’s work is one-sided. “He does not glorify or vilify either the cops or the people they are apprehending,” said Mia Dalglish, co-curator and exhibitions director of Pictura Gallery. “I see them both caught in this terrible maze of violence and sadness. The cops look just as trapped and stuck as the people they chase.” The result is a new perspective that is not often visible among the cops or those in the South Bronx.“It was not the politics or the social statements or the action that attracted me to this project, but the story of the people who learn to be police officers,” Bolfo said. “And it is something I feel needs to be told.”“IMPACT” will be on exhibit through Jan. 28 at Pictura Gallery.
(06/29/11 11:31pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>At the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender and Reproduction, there is a good deal of sexual artwork on the walls. This summer, similar art will be on the walls in the School of Fine Arts Gallery. Now in its sixth year, the Kinsey Institute’s Juried Art Show exhibits artwork in typical Kinsey style that “may entertain, educate, perplex or even irritate viewers.”This summer’s gallery description goes on to say, “But hopefully they will also stimulate thought and discussion about the link between creative expression and sexuality.” Kinsey Institute art curator Catherine Johnson-Roehr said these annual shows are an outlet for contemporary artists who would normally have a harder time exhibiting artwork that deals with sexual content. Johnson-Roehr said the Juried Art Show is more sophisticated than one might presume.“It also represents things like sexual identity, sexual and gender politics and also the human figure, which has been in art for millennia and isn’t considered erotic at all,” Johnson-Roehr said. “So you see, the show is not all about sex, it’s not all about erotica. It’s very interesting.”As SoFA’s gallery director and a jury member for Kinsey Institute, Betsy Stirratt emphasized the importance in showing a wide range of artwork, including that with sexual content. She said some of the pieces are a lot more subtle and thought-provoking.“One that comes to mind is a video of moths mating,” Stirratt said. “It sounds a little weird and funny, but it’s very touching. It’s the life cycle. The art show is not just about human sexuality, it’s sexuality in general.”Johnson-Roehr said she has yet to hear someone complain about the show’s explicitness but would receive it respectfully.“Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but this is artwork, and those who submit it consider themselves to be artists,” Johnson-Roehr said. “It’s more than you see in mainstream media, and you certainly see body parts that you might not see on television, but we’re not interested in offending anyone. “The artists are expressing themselves because they have something to say.”Stirratt recognized the exhibition of the art as an educational duty to provide different aspects of what art is.“And we will continue to show that kind of work,” Stirratt said. “It’s a matter of free speech and expression.”Just as impressionist painting is considered classic after initial reactions of outrage, Johnson-Roehr said this kind of artwork is becoming more acceptable as time passes.“We’re not expecting to see it at the Metropolitan Museum of Art any time soon, but there are more and more artists who feel they need to include this more explicit imagery in their artwork without it being pigeon-holed as ‘erotic’ art,” Johnson-Roehr said. “Nude is nothing new in the art world, but we still have a ways to go before people become completely comfortable with seeing this kind of art.”
(03/03/11 4:13am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The celebration of 100 years of journalism education brought a panel of three Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalists to the Buskirk-Chumley Theater on Wednesday. The discussion, moderated by professor Jim Kelly and journalism student Olivia Corya, allowed Michel du Cille, Melissa Farlow and Bill Foley, all IU alumni, to share with the audience the difficulty in keeping emotional distance from their projects and how much risk is worth taking to tell the stories that need to be told through the images they take.All three lecturers agreed that one of the most important duties of a photojournalist is to reveal the absolute truth of other people’s reality.“We’re photojournalists,” Foley said. “We tell stories on behalf of the survivors, but also of the dead. It’s an incredibly important job.”Cille relayed this in exposing the mistreatment of war veterans who were stationed to hospital recovery. A picture appeared on the screen behind du Cille showing a veteran peeling back a strip of wallpaper in his room to reveal mold.“Just walking into that room, the mold was overpowering,” du Cille said. “The vet turned to me and said, ‘This is what we heroes have to live with.’”But Cille, who has won three Pulitzer Prizes, said revealing these social inadequacies is what the job is all about. The veterans’ hospitals caused uproar in Washington D.C., and they have since been cleaned and remodeled.“I’ve always wanted and felt that journalism should have some kind of change,” du Cille said. “Pulitzer Prizes are great. I wouldn’t give them back, but I’m much more proud of the part that I can take in making a change somewhere.”Melissa Farlow articulated how important it is that the subject of the photograph trusts the photographer as she shared her story of following female inmates to reveal their personal stories.“It’s all about access and trust,” Farlow said. “Without trust, there is no access. And if I’ve learned anything in this job, it’s that I practice the opposite of celebrity journalism. I believe that the simplest people have the most interesting stories that are waiting to be told.”The lecturers said emotional attachment is one of the biggest battles that a photojournalist must face when pursuing a difficult project.Du Cille said he couldn’t stand watching a baby walk around with the same diaper on for more than 12 hours, so he went out and bought a pack of diapers and changed the baby himself.“I made sure not to give the family money or anything so as not to get myself too involved, but at some point, you’re only human and you can’t help but do what you can to give them dignity,” du Cille said.When it comes to the countless risks that photojournalists take throughout their assignments, Foley said the camera can take on an unprecedented role.“The camera gives you the courage to do things you wouldn’t otherwise do,” Foley said.Du Cille added that the photojournalist has no choice but to be brave when it comes to exposing social injustices.“We get at the truth, and the camera is one of the best truths there is,” du Cille said. “But when you have it in your heart to give the subject dignity, you have to be courageous.”
(11/16/10 5:02am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Starting next fall, 28-year-old Krzysztof Urbanski will join the Jacobs School of Music as an adjunct professor of music in orchestral conducting. The Polish conductor will also become the music director of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, making him the first to attain both positions, and the nation’s youngest music director of a major U.S. orchestra.“The position that he is taking on as an adjunct professor for IU and the ISO is unbelievable at his age — it would be an accomplishment at the age of 65 let alone 28,” said Gwyn Richards, dean of the Jacobs School of Music. “The fact that he is going to be the director of a major U.S. orchestra before his 30th birthday is just incredible.”Critics have called him a genius, and he seems to be a rock star of sorts in the professional music world, but Urbanski’s start in music education started by accident.“My friend from primary school was not able to spend much time playing soccer with me after joining the music school, and since we were really best pals, I followed him,” Urbanski said in an e-mail from Europe. “I started to dream about being a composer.”When Urbanski was just 15 years old he wrote his first piece for orchestra.“I asked my colleagues from my music school in Pabianice, Poland to perform the piece for a concert I organized, but they needed a conductor,” Urbanski said. “The piece was pretty bad, but I found conducting great fun.”Urbanski soon realized that if he wanted to take his newfound passion seriously, he would need to study conducting professionally, so he went to Antoni Wit’s conducting class at Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw, Poland.Upon graduating in 2007, Urbanski unanimously won the first prize for the Prague Spring International Conducting Competition. After just one appearance in September 2009, he was named chief conductor of the Trondheim Symphony Orchestra in Norway for the 2010-11 season.Last April, Urbanski made his U.S. debut with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra.“From that first visit in Indianapolis, I found that the musicians there are very open-minded, responsive and want to create something really special, so I’m looking forward to working with them again and again,” Urbanski said. “After signing a contract with the ISO, I got an invitation to become an adjunct professor at IU. I feel privileged to join such great institutions.”The young maestro’s presence on the IU campus could also potentially open some doors for the students.“If he hears someone who he really likes, perhaps it means some part-time work with the ISO or somewhere else he may be affiliated,” said Tom Wieligman, Jacobs executive administrator of instrumental ensembles. “This is both good for the student because of the professional experience and good for the reputation of the school.”Urbanski said he doesn’t let his young age hinder his professionalism in the music world.“Maybe some 30 years ago, it would be unacceptable if a 28-year-old conductor led an orchestra, but that has started to change,” Urbanski said. “I always focus the orchestra’s attention on what I have to offer; my interpretation, my style of work, and my ideas. My age is no longer an obstacle.”Richards said from where IU stands culturally, Urbanski’s young age is an asset.“The general trend is to turn toward younger music directors because it’s a means by which to remain relevant. They have more potential to connect to younger audiences,” Richards said. “Also, Urbanski’s repertoire will be different, and he will be very effective in developing the music to give it more personality.”Even though Urbanski is still young, he says he’s in it for the long haul.“If you want to be a conductor, you have to devote your whole life to music — there are no half-measures or short cuts,” Urbanski said. “Since I found that music is my biggest passion, I know I have to commit to it.”And although he has already received an overwhelming amount of critical acclaim in the music world, Urbanski doesn’t let it get to his head.“I don’t think of myself as a genius,” Urbanski said. “I’m just an ordinary man with a huge passion.”
(11/10/10 4:39am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Starting Nov. 14, the IU DEFA Project will present DEFA Dialogues, a series of five film screenings and discussions. These films, however, are not ordinary films. In fact, many of them were thought to be lost after the fall of the Berlin Wall, and they focus on East Germany, a country that no longer exists.Before the fall of the Wall, East German filmmakers were up against imposing control from the government. “The films at that period were funded by the state, so the government had a significant role in how the films were made,” said Brigitta Wagner, the director of the 2010 DEFA Project and an assistant professor in the Germanic studies and cinema, communications and culture and film studies departments. “The East German directors didn’t have as much creative freedom, so they would use coded references to get their messages beyond the authorities.”After the collapse of the Wall, the East German citizens realized they were no longer confined to East German films — they could watch whatever they wanted.“The films made in the East tackled difficult subjects,” Wagner said. “The people didn’t want to watch films about how difficult life was like in East Germany; they wanted to put that behind them.”Thus, the status of the East German filmmakers fell, and their films were lost.“But now, 20 years after the Cold War ended, their stories have become much more interesting,” Wagner said.The DEFA Foundation in Berlin is charged by the German government to protect and preserve the films of DEFA, the former East German film studios before and immediately after the fall of the Berlin Wall. The only DEFA Film Library outside of Europe is located at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.However, last spring, Wagner created the IU DEFA Project, a group that works to showcase DEFA’s films. “I just thought, ‘Let’s be one of those campuses that does something with these films,’” Wagner said. “Let’s make these recovered films relevant to young people and to the Bloomington community and anticipate this new cinema with films that no one has ever seen before.”IU DEFA member graduate student Jan Steele said the best part about the spring film screenings was that they attracted a wide variety of attendees. This fall, the Project is moving on to DEFA Dialogues, a presentation of five specially selected films. Three of the screenings will feature special guests and all of them will include a discussion of the film after the screening.“As one of the first series co-presented by the IU Cinema, DEFA Dialogues will give audiences a first taste of a different kind of movie-going experience,” Steele said.To select the films, Wagner met with Helmut Morsbach, the head of the DEFA Foundation in Berlin, and asked him which films would be particularly interesting and different to show. Of the films he offered her, Wagner selected “Locked Up Time” (1990), “Carbide and Sorrel” (1963), “Vorspiel” (1987), “Windows on Monday” (2006) and “Sammelsurium” (1992). The films, whose topics range from the activities of the East German Stasi secret police to the experiences of being young in East Germany, will each be shown on campus in mid-November and early December. The screenings are free and open to the public, and all of the films will be accompanied by English subtitles. Although three of the films were already subtitled before the series was set into motion, “Vorspiel” and “Sammelsurium” have been subtitled especially for the IU DEFA Project based on the request of Indiana’s high school students who took part in the Project’s student symposium last spring.“The fact that these two films have been subtitled for us is especially exciting,” Wagner said. “Now, these films will be released in the U.S. and will be more available for the English-speaking audience, and these are films that almost no one has ever seen before. That’s special, that’s really special.”Wagner said not only is it exciting to see films that have rarely been seen before, but there is particular intrigue in the fact that they come from a country that no longer exists.“Austria is still Austria; Poland is still Poland; East Germany is not still East Germany,” Wagner said. “Thousands of films are made every year, but now and then, it’s important to look at cinematic history during a time that had a change that came so quickly. It’s easy to forget what they were thinking at the time and what the future looked like for them.”Even though DEFA Dialogues invites everyone to see the screenings, Wagner said younger people should take a special interest in the series.“Students and teens these days were born in the late ’80s and early ’90s when the Cold War ended, the Berlin Wall fell and German unification began,” Wagner said. “They might not know so much about the time in which they were born, and this is a great opportunity to see what was going on in the world at that time. It’s important to be aware, and there’s nothing better than meeting the people who lived through it.”‘Locked up time’ (1990) WHEN 3 p.m. Nov. 14WHERE Whittenberger AuditoriumHelmut Morsbach, the head of the DEFA Foundation in Berlin, will introduce the film and lead a Q&A session after the screening. “Locked Up Time” was created by a female filmmaker named Sybille Schönemann who was locked up by the Stasi, East Germany’s secret police.“I think many people became strangely fascinated by the activities of the East German Stasi secret police when they saw the Oscar-winning 2006 German movie ‘The Lives of Others,’” IU DEFA member graduate student Jan Steele said. “For me, that fiction film raised a lot of questions, and I’m eager to watch the 1990 documentary ‘Locked Up Time’ to see another perspective and perhaps a more realistic glimpse of someone coming to terms with why the secret police arrested and imprisoned her.”‘Carbide and Sorrel’ (1963)WHEN 7 p.m. Nov. 15WHERE Fine Arts AuditoriumThis film was included in the series at the suggestion of filmmaker Peter Kahane and film critic, writer and radio figure Knut Elstermann, who both said this film got under their skin and made them want to work in cinema. Kahane and Elstermann will lead a discussion following the screening.‘Vorspiel’ (1987)WHEN 7 p.m. Nov. 16WHERE Fine Arts AuditoriumElstermann will lead an interview with filmmaker Kahane after the screening. This is a film that focuses on the youth in East Germany.“If you fondly remember the chaos that ensued when you had a crush on someone and would do anything to get that person’s attention, you won’t want to miss Vorspiel,” Steele said.As playful as it might seem, Wagner said the youth is depicted in a strikingly honest way. “They’re frustrated with their lives. They have dreams, and they love,” said Brigitta Wagner, the director of the 2010 DEFA Project. “There’s vulnerability in the film that youth everywhere can relate to.”‘Windows on Monday’ (2006) and ‘Sammelsurium’ (1992)WHEN 7 p.m. Dec. 1 and 2WHERE Fine Arts AuditoriumBoth films came out of the production company, the Berlin School, which showcases a new movement of filmmaking that harbors the younger, more contemporary filmmakers of East Germany.“A lot of the films that come out of the Berlin School focus on life in the city or suburbs and family,” Wagner said. “They’re made in a dark way but with an artistic sensibility.”Members of IU’s German Studies will lead a discussion following the films.
(09/30/10 3:27am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Melted prescription bottles and photos hanging at eye level are just two of the installation projects accepted for display at the McCalla Building, home to the Fuller Projects.“We try to show a variety of art,” said Marla Roddy, co-director at the Fuller Projects. “We don’t exclude anything.”The projects, established by students in 2002, are geared toward young emerging artists with more contemporary artwork.Jasmine Begeske, who received her BFA in photography from IU, is the next exhibitionist on the schedule with the show “Surrogate,” which will be on display from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. Friday. The idea for “Surrogate” started when Begeske was diagnosed with Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome, which left her infertile. As she wrote in her brochure for the exhibit, she no longer viewed the process of life as natural once she started fertility treatments, as the mystery and surprise of conception was wiped out of the equation. “The intersection of sex and science is where I stand,” Begeske wrote in the brochure. “I want viewers that enter my installation to feel they are standing at that same crossroads, the juxtaposition of a sex and the medically intervened intercourse, chance and order, organic and controlled, private and public.”To achieve this, Begeske melted a mass of orange prescription bottles so that each of them takes on a twisted and misshapen form unique from the others. The individual forms will be nailed to the wall, covering the gallery.“I want people to feel overwhelmed,” Begeske said.In addition to the melted bottles, a bed covered in more bottles will be installed in the middle of the room, and black and white photographs will be on display on another wall.Begeske said each time she shows “Surrogate” in galleries around the country, each installation is different. “I always consider the entire space of the gallery, so the exhibit looks different in each one,” Begeske said. “Presentation is definitely a part of the content — my work is not shown in pretty frames.”The focus on presentation is a trend that Roddy has noticed as well — artists are much more thoughtful about the installation process.“One of my professors always used to say that it’s 90 percent presentation,” Roddy said. “If you have a great piece of art sitting on a dirty floor, no one’s going to look at it. But at the same time, people are moving away from putting everything in frames, all in a perfect row.”In a past exhibit called “People Mountain People Sea” by Yang Chen, photographs taken of people walking through crowded streets were hung from fishing lines attached to the ceiling, each photo dangling at eye level.“You were surrounded by the photographs, and it really felt as though you were walking through a crowd,” Roddy said. “If the pictures had been on the wall, it wouldn’t have had the same effect.”The Fuller Projects is completely student-run and Roddy said the gallery is a launching point for young artists because they must present their idea then promote their show.“It’s good experience because that’s how it will be in the real world,” Roddy said.However, the unconventional gallery allows its artists to take chances.“Many people think that the Fuller Projects is a gallery for students, but we’re trying to get other people involved,” Roddy said. “We want to expose everyone to what’s out there in the art world.”