March 2 , 2007
Visual Dialogues Exhibit
Worcester, Mass. - Clark University will host an exhibit, Visual Dialogues, from Monday, March 12 through Friday, April 20 at the Traina Center for the Arts' Schiltkamp Gallery, 92 Downing Street, Worcester. The exhibit is a visual rejoinder to the theme of the Difficult Dialogues project, a project funded by a major Ford Foundation grant aimed at creating a culture of dialogue on campus.
"This exhibition and related events bring visual artists to campus who confront difficult topics and/or who work in ways that invite dialogue and interaction," said exhibit curator, Professor Elli Crocker of Clark's Studio Art Program. The exhibit includes art that documents aging and disease, showcases gay identity, and sheds light on racism and childhood violence.
Artists involved in the exhibit include Stephen DiRado, Michael Dowling, Steve Hollinger, Illegal Art, Steve Locke, James Montford, Sarina Khan Reddy, Elaine Spatz-Rabinowitz and Thomas Starr (artist bios are listed below).
On Tuesday, April 3, and Wednesday, April 4, Illegal Art, and artists James Montford and Michael Dowling (with Medicine Wheel Productions) will bring interactive performances to campus. These performance artists will talk about their work on Wednesday, April 4, at 2:30 p.m. in Razzo Hall, Traina Center for the Arts. A reception will follow.
The Visual Dialogues exhibit is free and open to the public. The Schiltkamp Gallery, 92 Downing Street, is open Monday through Thursday 9 a.m.to10 p.m. and Friday 9 a.m.to 4 p.m.; Saturday noon to 4 p.m., and Sunday noon to 9 p.m. For more information, contact (508) 793-7113.
Visual Dialogues Artists:
 Stephen DiRado, who teaches photography at Clark University, chronicles the ravages of aging and Alzheimer's disease on his father. His highly personal photos bear witness to Gene DiRado's painful decline, while evidencing also the strong bonds that exist between father and son.
Michael Dowling is the creator and director of Medicine Wheel Productions in Boston and is best known for organizing elaborate interactive events and powerful visual imagery at Boston Center for the Arts Cyclorama building in commemoration of World AIDS day on December 1st each year. To heighten awareness of the fact that most new cases of HIV/AIDS in America are afflicting 18-25 year olds –– and therefore the peer population of Clark's student body –– Dowling will bring a related interactive performance piece to campus.
Steve Hollinger's "Atomic" series of sculptures and photographs were inspired by the events of the atomic age. The Atomic series was created as a personal response to the artist's own deeper questions about humanity; on certainty and fallibility.
 Illegal Art is an artist collaborative from NYC whose goal is to create interactive public art to inspire self-reflection, thought, and human connection. Each piece is presented so that participation is simple and encouraged.
Steve Locke's paintings portray random intimacies between men and explore some of the cultural constructs around gay identity. The encounters depicted are fraught with both playfulness and tension, anonymity and familiarity.
James Montford confronts racism and cultural stereotypes in his challenging performance pieces, which are also documented in large color photos in the gallery. Identifying himself as African American and Native American, Montford plumbs his own experiences to create this work and hopes to heighten awareness of contemporary racism.
Sarina Khan Reddy, an artist of Indian descent "explores the perpetuation of the colonialist image" in photographs taken at Disney's theme park, Animal Kingdom. Her video works examine colonial imperialism and ongoing east/west dialectics.
 Elaine Spatz-Rabinowitz's drawings quietly yet forcefully depict individual casualties of the current wave of global violence. During the summer of 2005, she created 50 drawings, which were a cumulative response to daily news reports of events around the world. "Violence seemed ubiquitous—Iraq, Madrid, London, Russia, Israel—and as it filled the world, so did it fill my consciousness," she says.
Thomas Starr is a graphic designer/artist whose public art project, Remembering Boston's Children 1980-2005, "uses an MBTA bus as a mobile canvas. The school bus-yellow vehicle enables a powerful message about urban childhood violence--authored by children themselves--to travel throughout the city. The format of the bus, a mode of transportation that connects all classes and neighborhoods, is an ideal medium for bringing this message to all citizens."
For more information about other Difficult Dialogues events planned at Clark, please visit: spring/calendar.
Images:
Thomas Starr, Remembering Boston's Children 1980-2005, graphics on MBTA bus
Illegal Art, To Do, post-its on wall in NYC
Elaine Spatz-Rabinowitz, Dead Bodies, mixed media drawing
Stephen DiRado, Dad with Alzheimer's, November 13, 2005, Touching My Father, silver gelatin print
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