This colloquium does not utilize any pre-circulated materials.

Hosted by Humanities Center and faculty fellow Barbara Weissberger. The respondents for this event are Paula Kupfer (History of Art and Architecture) and Carla Nappi (History). This event will be hybrid, so you can attend it either in person in 602 CL or via Zoom as you prefer.

Art historian Linda Nochlin calls the fragment a metaphor for modernity: it marks a “loss of wholeness, a shattering of connection, a destruction or disintegration of permanent value…” But the fragment is also a seed – set loose it can carry the whole from which it is broken into new relations. Attached to other fragments it can wield unexpected, weird meanings beyond the bounds of its original state. In the case of visual image fragments, they may become loosened from context and less containable, a condition both exciting and anxiety-inducing. Creation and destruction, linked parts of my work, both produce and use fragments. In this presentation, I will talk about my photographic textile works in which bits of images printed on textiles combine with various other fabrics (including disassembled old clothing) to make collaged scenes of hand gestures, abject objects, and fragmented glimpses of the everyday.