Stacey Holloway, Like-Minded, 2016; Slip cast stoneware, mixed media, 4' x 10' x 8’Faculty in the University of Alabama at Birmingham College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Art and Art History have a new venue to showcase their visual research and interdisciplinary work.
Workspace is a platform for DAAH faculty to engage colleagues, students and department visitors by sharing visual records of recent projects, ongoing research and interdisciplinary collaboration.
Located on the second floor of the Abroms-Engel Institute for the Visual Arts in the Department of Art and Art History’s Carolyn Perry Student Gathering Lounge, Workspace aims to create a visually dynamic, inviting space for students to learn, study and interact with fellow students while learning more about their professors’ research. Projects are viewable during regular business hours. Presentations will rotate monthly, highlighted by free, informal coffee breaks in which the month’s faculty presenter will be on hand to discuss his or her work.
The final Workspace Coffee Break of the semester is scheduled for Monday, Dec. 5. At 3 p.m., Associate Professor of Art History Jessica Dallow, Ph.D., and her students will present the project Archiving Birmingham Art and Artists, where the students conduct interviews with local artists and arts professional to build an online oral history archive about the history of the arts in Birmingham. Coffee and refreshments are generously provided by Lucy’s Coffee and Tea.
The first Workspace show featured recent investigations by Assistant Professor Doug Baulos, MFA, and Associate Professor Doug Barrett, MFA, who traveled to Japan together this summer. Barrett and Baulos discussed their work during a Workspace Coffee Break, on Monday, Aug. 29.
“Japan offers an unusual juxtaposition of ancient ceremony and ultramodern aesthetics,” Barrett said. “Startling contrasts and inspirational vignettes, found around every corner, lend themselves to a visual mode of storytelling, and it is these types of contrasts that are presented in Workspace.”
While Barrett’s works reflect his ongoing research on commuting and visual mapping, Baulos’ combines found objects, papermaking and traditional textile stitching and dyeing techniques.
“As an artist and educator, immersion into another culture has always generated surprising outcomes,” Baulos said. “My recent research in Japan focused on Itajime Shibori and Sashiko stitching, which are both processes of practice and refinement with an emphasis on detail that require complete focus, total absorption and slow engagement.”
On Oct. 3, Sculpture Professor Stacey Holloway, MFA, discussed her practice and featured some of her small works alongside objects that have inspired her recent exhibitions at Huntsville’s Lowe Mill, The Sculpture Center in Cleveland, Ohio and the Roland Dille Center for the Arts in Moorhead, Minnesota.
“I use studies of animal behavior, the landscape, and architectural drafting as mechanisms for metaphors of uncertainty and longing, and through my sculpture build narratives situated at the point between possible success and potential failure,” Holloway said. “Much of my work juxtaposes imagery of domesticity and feral wildlife. From the moment we transition into adulthood, we are in a constant quest for the concept of a “home,” to once again find a rapport with a space and a herd. The materials I use in my work, like these presented in Workspace, exemplify these juxtapositions.”
On Nov. 7, Professor of Graphic Design Erin Wright, MFA, discussed his practice. Wright has designed posters shown in more than 60 international competitions and invitational exhibitions in 18 countries around the world including Warsaw, Poland; Brno, the Czech Republic; South Korea; Iran; Taiwan; and most recently, the Bienal Internacional del Cartel in Mexico City. He is a co-founder of Posters Without Borders, a biennial invitational poster exhibition that focuses on political and social issues.
Each month’s featured faculty project will be announced on the DAAH website, www.uab.edu/art, and promoted through social media using the hashtag #daahworkspace. For questions, contact Workspace coordinator Jared Ragland at raglandj@uab.edu.