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UB Art Galleries debuts new video initiative
Rodney McMillan, "Untitled (the Great Society) I,” 2006. Courtesy of the artist and Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects. McMillian recites former president Lyndon Johnson's 1964 commencement address at the University of Michigan in which he introduced his idea of the Great Society. McMillian’s work showcases how one should not interrogate history as fixed — many of the 50-year-old policies, actions and ideas of the Great Society speech remain overlooked.
UBNOW STAFF
Published August 29, 2016 This content is archived.
The UB Art Galleries’ new Screen Projects initiative — a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week public art video program located on the second floor of the gallery in the Center for the Arts — debuts on Sept. 8 with “Untitled (the Great Society) I” by Los Angeles-based artist Rodney McMillian.
An opening reception will be held from 5-8 p.m. in the gallery. The exhibition runs through Nov. 13.
In “Untitled (the Great Society) I,” McMillian recites the entire 1964 commencement speech at the University of Michigan in which former president Lyndon B. Johnson first introduced his idea of the Great Society. Johnson’s main goal was to eliminate poverty and racial injustice through a series of domestic programs while focusing on improving America’s cities, landscape and educational system. The speech forecasted much of the Johnson administration, during which such programs as Medicaid, Medicare, Head Start and food stamps originated, as well as the signing of the historic Civil Rights Act of 1964.
McMillian plays the role of the politician, juxtaposing the past and present by investigating history and the performative aspects of politics. The artist found he agreed with many of Johnson’s ideas, and the speech continues to resonate as much in the present day as it did in 1964. While originally performed in 2006, the artwork still feels timely a decade later, especially in light of the recent police shootings and the tumultuous election season.
Lydia Okumura, "Different Dimensions of Reality II."
First realized as part of Jovem Arte Contemporânea (JAC) '72 at Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Campinas, São Paulo, 1972. Courtesy of the artist and Broadway 1602 Uptown & Harlem.
“Screen Projects: Rodney McMillian” joins the previously announced “Lydia Okumura: Situations,” the first solo museum exhibition of the Brazilian-born artist, as exhibitions this fall in the UB Art Gallery in the Center for the Arts.
Also on view beginning Sept. 8 in the Second Floor Gallery in the CFA is “With and Without the Other,” an exhibition of collaborative artworks by a group of artists and art historians who are graduate students and alumni from the Academy of Arts & Design in Tsinghua University and the UB Department of Art.
The collaborations began last January in Beijing as part of an academic exchange program between Tsinghua University and the UB art department, and will be completed at UB this September. The resulting works, presented in a range of mediums, articulate the experience of working across the globe as creative thinkers who are, at the same time, collaborators, counterparts and enigmatic strangers. The collaborators seek to shift our perceptions and interactions with one another by overcoming misunderstandings and finding a common language.
“With and Without the Other” is on view through Oct. 8.
Opening receptions for “With and Without the Other” and “Lydia Okumura: Situations,” as well as for “Screen Projects: Rodney McMillian,” will be held from 5-8 p.m. Sept. 8 in the UB Art Gallery in the Center for the Arts.
The gallery is open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and from 1-5 p.m. on Saturday.
Admission is free.
In addition to the “With and Without the Other” exhibition, the academic exchange program also features a symposium and lectures by two faculty members from the Chinese university.
Eric Feng Fan, assistant professor, will discuss “Displacement of Art Works and Exhibitions” from 10-10:30 a.m. Aug. 29; Ding Hong, associate professor, will speak on “Traditional Chinese Figure Painting” from 11:30 a.m. to noon on Aug. 31. Both lectures will take place in the art department’s Lower Gallery, B45 Center for the Arts.
The With and Without Agreement Symposium will take place from 6-8 p.m. Sept. 1 in the Lower Gallery. Speakers include Ou Ning, a lecturer at Columbia University, who will discuss “Bishan Commune as a Practical Utopia”; Kristin Stapleton, associate professor in the UB Department of History and Asian Studies Program, who will speak on “With and Without Acknowledgment: Influences on the Shape of Chinese Urbanization”; and Shannon Bassett, assistant professor in the UB School of Architecture and Planning, who will talk about “Back to the Countryside! Recovering China’s Agricultural and Ecological Landscapes Countryside through Village Acupunctures.”