Oscillations

The seen and the unseen is constantly shifting between our exterior and interior states of vision. What are these two modes of vision? And how can art serve to mediate our perception and ultimately enable us to enter an alternate, surprising part of ourselves?

This Senior Thesis Exhibition is a culmination of a two-semester thesis tutorial of the Studio Art Program at Wesleyan University. Working in an array of mediums, the Studio Art majors have each engaged in a rigorous, self-directed creative investigation.

As curators, we have tried to investigate the divergent strategies these artists have engaged with to encourage viewers to notice not only what is seen, but also what could otherwise be easily disregarded if one does not probe beyond the surface. We consider connections between the seen and the unseen; between naturally occurring patterns, cognitive methods, and artistic expression.

In our curation of this broad range of works, we have shaped the Zilkha Gallery as its own, larger, sort of image of intercession. Photographs, paintings, and sculptural installations have been intertwined throughout the bays of the gallery. We encourage the spectator to move in and out of the coves of the space, to delve in and out of these states of the seen and the unseen, the real and the imagined, the visual and the immaterial. At their core, each of these works begs the viewer not just to see what is before them, but rather to consider what these works may invite them to think about. We invite spectators to indulge in this layered state of vision, to access the in-between states of reality and non-reality, to splurge in the indeterminate, to get lost in it...

Sara Kim ’19 and Rachel Rosin ’19