Campus Announcements

Shades of White: Installation by Prof. Gerri Ondrizek

Shades of White, an installation of new work by Prof. Geraldine Ondrizek, is on view at the Artist Project Space at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art at the University of Oregon through Sunday, December 14. Shades of White is based on the work of Alexandra Minna Stern, a medical historian at the University of Michigan, who investigates the history of eugenics and its attendant genetic and racial discrimination as practiced in Oregon (and the United States more broadly) in 1900–87. Using hand-dyed silk displayed in 18-gage steel boxes, Ondrizek reinterprets the “Gates Skin Color Charts” created by R. Ruggles Gates and used by eugenicists in the mid-20th century to chart race. “Rigorously researched and thoughtfully executed, Ondrizek’s installation invites viewers to look through the silk panels, designed to approximate variations of skin pigmentation, and consider their own ideas about race and identity,” notes June Black, associate curator of the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art. The exhibition was funded by a 2014 Hallie Ford Individual Artist Fellowship in the Visual Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts. Read a review by art critic Richard Speer.

The museum is offering free admission on Wednesday, December 10, 11 a.m.–8 p.m., to commemorate Human Rights Day in Oregon.

For more information, contact Gerri Ondrizek or visit:
http://jsma.uoregon.edu/geraldine-ondrizek-shades-white.
Submitted by Laurie Lindquist.
Posted on Sep 24, 2014

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