Visual Arts Briefs

The new documentary William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe explores the controversial life of the late radical civil rights lawyer as seen through the eyes of his two daughters, filmmakers Emily and Sarah Kunstler. The award-winning film traces Kunstler’s life and career, from his involvement in landmark civil rights and anti-war cases, to his later work that sparked public outrage and made him “the most hated lawyer in America.”

Producer Susi Korda, who is a faculty member in the MPS Live Action Short Film Department, spoke with the Briefs about the film:

How did you come to be involved in the documentary?
Emily Kunstler was a student of mine when I was teaching in the undergraduate film department at NYU, and over the years she’d keep me posted on what she was working on. We met up again at the Human Rights Watch International Film Festival and shortly after I got a call to be a consultant, which eventually morphed into being a producer.

What drew you to the project?
The moment I sat down and saw footage of William Kunstler I knew that it was not going to be a normal portrait. He had such amazing humanity in him and such a high intellect. He went from being a darling of the [political] left to being someone who was very good at what he did, and yet was extremely hated for it.

What did you find challenging about making this film?
It’s very hard to make a personal documentary and I’ve ‘midwived’ many—it involves balancing intellectual detachment with emotional attachment. You don’t want to cut one or the other off, but somehow honor both. It’s both [William’s] biography and [Emily and Sarah’s] arc in the film—how these two sisters who are daughters of a loathed public figure have grown up with and negotiated his legacy.

William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe is playing at Cinema Village in Manhattan through Thursday, December 24.

SVA students, faculty members and alumni frequently appear in news stories, but lately several students from SVA have been making the news in a different way: by writing it. Here are three recent articles written by current students in the MFA Design Criticism Department (D-Crit):

• Frederico Duarte recently wrote a piece for Eye blog about his work investigating a project for a D-Crit course taught by MFA Design Department Co-chair Steven Heller. He researched six Pan Am posters from the early 1970s using the Lily Auchincloss Study Center for Architecture and Design at The Museum of Modern Art, New York, as well as the Milton Glaser Design Study Center and Archives at SVA. He also wrote another article about the posters for Eye magazine’s issue 73.
• Alan Rapp penned an article for Print magazine about the evolution of design work for heavy metal bands, which encompasses a wide variety of styles beyond stereotypical gothic fonts and satanic iconography. Rapp also produced a podcast on the same topic for a D-Crit class early this year.
• Earlier this semester, Angela Riechers contributed to Voice: AIGA Journal of Design with an article entitled “Blood Types.” She examines vampire typologies since the 1897 publication of Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula, as well as contemporary pop culture’s obsession with the mythical creatures.

Read more articles by D-Crit students in the Reading Room section of the department’s Web site.

A recent article in The New York Times turned a spotlight on a new exhibition called “Decode: Digital Design Sensations” at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum. One of the digital artists included in the show is Joshua Davis—who is on the faculty of both the graduate and undergraduate computer art programs at SVA—and the museum has also included MFA Computer Art Department Chair Bruce Wands’ book Art of the Digital Age in its selection of related reading. “I have been helping with the ‘Digital Pioneers’ exhibition, says Wands, “and of the artists included, Paul Brown, Charles Csuri, Barbara Nessim, Lillian Schwartz and Roman Verostko are in my book.”

Wands will be keeping his UK connection going through the new year, when he travels to London for a British Computer Society conference titled Ideas Before Their Time: Connecting the Past and Present in Computer Art, taking place Wednesday, February 3, 2010. He will be presenting a paper—“Creating Continuity Between Computer Art History and Contemporary Art”—that traces more than half a century of computer art history, focusing as much on the organizations that have supported digital work over the year as the artists themselves. “The responsibility for the development, support and archiving of this art form [historically], and until now, has fallen primarily to visionary computer art organizations and galleries,” says Wands in the paper. For a taste of his expertise on the topic, read an interview Wands gave to the Web site Flavorwire earlier this year, in conjunction with his department’s event, Technocultures: The History of Digital Art: A Conversation.

Image: Art of the Digital Age (Thames & Hudson, 2006).

Over the course of the 2009–10 academic year, a series of five promotional posters designed by faculty member Gail Anderson is appearing in the NYC subway system. Each one features a quote from President Barack Obama’s inaugural address—“In reaffirming the greatness of our nation, we understand that greatness is never a given. It must be earned.”—with visuals that Anderson created with illustrator Terry Allen. As the third and fourth posters are beginning to show up on subway platforms across the city, Anderson spoke with the Briefs about the series.

How did you select the passage from President Obama’s speech that appears on the posters?
SVA’s Executive Vice President Anthony Rhodes gave me the quote. He said he looks at it every morning, which I thought was really interesting. I decided I’d do the same, so I wrote it on a Post-It and stuck it to the bathroom mirror, in hopes of finding a bit of inspiration.

What was your process for designing a visual to accompany the text?
I worked really closely with Terry Allen, whom I’ve known for over 25 years now. I wanted to create an uplifting, WPA-style poster to help brighten the mood of the city at the dawn of the new administration. We did a bunch of them and we were having such a good time working together. In the end, I showed Tony all five since they sort of made a nice little set. You can imagine my surprise when he decided to run them all.

What sort of reaction are you hoping these posters will elicit?
Connecting the message of aspiring to greatness to both the nation and the College is pretty powerful, but Terry and I wanted to make it playful at the same time. I hope it’s the sort of quote and poster that will make you feel a little better about your morning commute—and will stay with you over time. You’ll see it on five different posters over the course of the school year if you ride the subway, so that quote’s going to become a small part of your life and maybe a source of inspiration.

Image: Gail Anderson, SVA subway posters, 2009. ©Visual Arts Press, Ltd.

• MFA Design Department faculty member Stefan Sagmeister is the winner of the 2009 Lucky Strike Designer Award. This international design award from the Raymond Loewy Foundation recognizes a designer whose work has helped improve the social and cultural conditions of everyday life. The jury said of Sagmeister, “His work is highly creative, bold and innovative. It combines philosophy, politics and socially relevant subjects with avant-garde design; it’s democratic and accessible to everyone.”
• Critics at The Onion’s A.V. Club compiled their list of the 25 Best Comics of the ‘00s, and three members of the SVA community made the cut: alumnus Michael Kupperman (BFA 1998 Fine Arts) for Tales Designed to Thrizzle (Fantagraphics, 2005–present); BFA Illustration and Cartooning Department faculty member David Mazzucchelli for his graphic novel Asterios Polyp (Pantheon, 2009); and alumnus James Sturm (MFA 1991 Illustration as Visual Essay) for The Golem’s Mighty Swing (D&Q, 2000).
• At this fall’s NYC Metropolitan Area College Computer Animation Festival (MetroCAF), 10 of the 26 digital animations selected for the festival came from the BFA Computer Art, Computer Animation and Visual Effects and MFA Computer Art Departments. The 2009 MetroCAF continues a multi-year run for the College as one of the festival’s top contributors. Click here for the complete list of 26 honorees.
• The Art Directors Club (ADC) recently announced the recipients of its 2009 National Scholarships, and three of the eight winners were students in the BFA Advertising and Graphic Design Department: Yumi Nakamura won the $2,500 ADC Scholarship in Graphic Design; Kaya Ono won the $2,500 Sahre, Victore, Wilker Scholarship in Graphic Design; and Youngbum Kim won the $500 Jeffrey Metzner and Carin Goldberg Scholarship.

Image: Stefan Sagmeister with his Lucky Strike Design Award; photo by Elias Wessel.

Apple’s iTunes App Store recently reported more than two-billion downloads of the 100,000 programs available in its collection of digital applications for the iPhone. One new app appearing in the store comes from the imagination of alumnus Jung-mi Lee (BFA 2007 Computer Art), who worked with other artists and programmers at Strategic Design Lab to create the game Rat Busters. The game is a point-of-view adventure that puts the player in the sewers and subway tunnels of Gotham City (loosely based on NYC), which is infested with giant rats engineered by the evil Dr. Wasabi. After choosing one of three different characters—Hans, Luke or Mia—gamers then start shooting the irradiated rats and making their way through 12 levels of action. Rat Busters is available through the iTunes Store for $1.99, and gamers can click here to read more or purchase the app.

In addition, students in MFA Interaction Design Department faculty member Christopher Fahey’s Interaction Design Fundamentals course have completed a class project that generated new apps specifically for use in New York City. The resulting apps ranged from Book ‘Em, a GPS-powered program that locates the nearest branch of the New York Public Library, to New Green City, which gives updated details on the city progress toward its goal to reduce carbon emissions 30% by 2030. For more on this project, visit the MFA Interaction Design Department blog.

Image: Screen shot from Rat Busters.

The Whitney Museum of American Art has released the list of artists chosen for its 2010 biennial, and two SVA alumni are among the 56 artists chosen for the 75th edition of the event. Video artist Kate Gilmore (MFA 2002 Fine Arts) and multimedia artist Marianne Vitale (BFA 1996 Film and Video) will be presenting their work in the appropriately titled “2010” exhibition, which will be on view at the Whitney from February 25 – May 30, 2010. A full list of the artists selected for the biennial is available here, and the museum has created a video of the show’s curators, Francesco Bonami and Gary Carrion-Murayari, reading all of the names aloud:

In addition to more than 30 years at the forefront of the heavy metal genre, the band Twisted Sister has also gained fame in recent years for its rocked-out versions of classic Christmas songs featured on the 2006 album A Twisted Christmas. In bringing the album to the concert stage, Twisted Sister—which is headed by frontman Dee Snider and well-known for songs like “We’re not Gonna Take It”—looked to 3D Design Chair Kevin O’Callaghan to design the set and stage. The concert spectacle, also titled A Twisted Christmas, features lights, costumes and the Twisted Sister versions of songs like “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas” and “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus,” all staged in O’Callaghan’s vision of a heavy metal Santa’s Workshop. O’Callaghan’s contributions to the concert were recently featured on the examiner.com and BroadwayWorld.com.

A Twisted Christmas will be at the Las Vegas Hilton from December 15 – 17. View the promo video for a sample of last year’s show at NYC’s Nokia Theater:

From December 2 – 6, members of the SVA community headed to Miami, Florida, for Art Basel Miami Beach (ABMB) and the numerous satellite art fairs that surround the annual art-world confab. In addition to the SVA-sponsored booth at the Aqua Wynwood fair and mobile billboard that roamed the streets of Miami, SVA alumni, faculty and staff members made their presence felt in nearly every corner of the vast fairgrounds.

Amy Elkins (BFA 2007 Photography), whose work had been featured in SVA’s 2007 Aqua booth, was now showing at the Pulse Contemporary Art Fair, alongside Vickie Pierre (BFA 1997 Fine Arts), Lordy Rodriguez (BFA 1999 Fine Arts) and BFA Illustration and Cartooning Department Chair Thomas Woodruff. Greg Miller (MFA 1990 Photography and Related Media) was around the corner from SVA’s booth at Aqua, and Martin Wittfooth’s (MFA 2008 Illustration at Visual Essay) work had prime placement at both the Aqua and Scope fairs. Vera Lutter (MFA 1995 Photography and Related Media) and Amy Sillman (BFA 1979 Fine Arts) each had solo exhibitions as part of ABMB’s Art Kabinett; Nikki Katsikas (BFA 2008 Fine Arts) was at NADA; Michelle Weinberg (BFA 1983 Fine Arts) curated an exhibition at the Miami International Airport; and many more SVA artists were showing work around the city.

“We were all over Miami,” said Sam Modenstein, the College’s executive director of external relations, who was part of the SVA delegation in the Sunshine State, “and I think the wide range of work from our alumni and faculty highlighted just how many corners of the art world SVA is a part of.” In addition to the booths and gallery exhibitions during the week of fairs, Laurence Gartel (BFA 1977 Graphic Design) took part in a book signing for his book Auto Motion at The National Hotel, and Michael DeFeo (BFA 1995 Graphic Design) made his mark on Miami through participation in the street art project Primary Flight and its companion exhibition, “Blue Print for Space.”

Images: (top) SVA’s mobile billboard in Miami; (middle) SVA’s booth at Aqua Art Miami, photo by Dan Halm; (bottom) Michael De Feo, Miami flower mural from Primary Flight, 2009, photo by Matt White.

Just in time for the holiday shopping season, several members of the SVA community are displaying their work at the Degenerate Craft Fair (DCF), a traveling pop-up shop featuring handmade works of art. Organized by Art History, BFA Fine Arts and BFA Visual and Critical Studies Department faculty member Amy Wilson (BFA 1995 Fine Arts) and current BFA Visual and Critical Studies Department student Shannon Broder, the DCF will have jewelry, stuffed animals, CDs, stickers, clothing and books, all generally priced under $50.

The DCF is making rounds in the city this month, setting up shop in three different locations over three weeks in December. Last weekend the fair opened at Silent Barn, and this week the fair will be at 303 Grand, 303 Grand Street, Brooklyn, on Sunday, December 13, from 12 noon – 10pm, with a reception from 8 – 10pm; and Monday, December 14, from 12 noon – 8pm. The final location will be BravinLee programs in Mahattan, 526 West 26th Street, Suite 211, on Friday, December 18, from 12 noon – 9pm; and Saturday, December 19, from 12 noon – 6pm.

The fair features the work of several SVA artists including: current BFA Fine Arts Department students Victoria Duffee, Florencia Escudero, George Heintz, Ji Youn Hong, Nina Lichtman, Abigail Lloyd, Chris Retsina and Thang Tran; BFA Illustration and Cartooning Department students Giancarlo Corbacho, Erin Dodge and Jonny Ruzzo; BFA Photography Department student Carly Planker; BFA Visual and Critical Studies Deparment student Marissa Havers; and alumni Renee Delosh (BFA 2009 Fine Arts), James Farias (BFA 2009 Fine Arts), Lauren Fatzinger (BFA 2009 Fine Arts), Shalimar Luis (BFA 2007 Graphic Design), Andi Magenheimer (BFA 2009 Fine Arts), Yura Osborn (BFA 2009 Fine Arts), Greg Roth (BFA 2009 Cartooning) and Rachel Wheeler (BFA 2007 Graphic Design). More images of the fair and work for sale are viewable on the DCF’s Flickr photostream.

Image: The Rapt Boutique table at the Degenerate Craft Fair at Silent Barn; photo by Shannon Broder.