New exhibition videos now online

Bringing art and artists into the home

Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) has premiered new exhibitions videos by four artists showing at the SCAD Museum of Art: Raúl de Nieves, Shoplifter, Igshaan Adams, and Kenturah Davis.

Though the museum itself is currently closed due to the global pandemic, these unique walk-through videos provide the opportunity to experience inside the process and output of these acclaimed international artists. The videos are now available for viewing at scadmoa.org.

All four exhibitions opened to sensational response at SCAD deFINE ART 2020, the annual signature event featuring exhibitions, lectures, and performances. Held in February, deFINE ART brought these exhibiting artists, and other creative leaders to SCAD Savannah and Atlanta locations for the festivities.

These videos exemplify the mission of SCAD MOA: to enrich the education of SCAD students and expand learning opportunities beyond the classroom, inspiring and challenging students across disciplines to push the boundaries of their creative practice. The videos provide museum members, SCAD students and alumni, and audiences around the world an inside look at these dynamic exhibitions, providing creative joy and public art programming during trying times. The concise videos include artist and curator interviews, detailed shots of exhibitions, and time-lapse sequences of artists at work.

“The work derives from a personal story,” Raúl de Nieves says, “an understanding of yourself.” His exhibition, Reemerge the Zero Begins Your Life, Eternal is Your Light utilizes the distinct encasement-like structure of the SCAD MOA Jewel Boxes to position his sculptures as allegories within shrines. Using beading, sequins and textiles, the artist sublimates spiritual energies into agendered representations of characters like The Fool, the tarot’s eternal figure of rebirth, and chromatic delineations of the seven chakras.

“When it comes to being a creative person, I think it’s very important to find comfort in being uncomfortable,” remarks Hrafnhildur Arnardóttir, aka Shoplifter, in the video celebrating her exhibition, Chromo Zone. Her sculptural installation, made from synthetic hair extensions, presents cave-like dwellings whose dynamic in-person experience translates well to video. As a medium, hair represents both the viewer’s identity and what Shoplifter calls the “remnant of the beast in us.”

“If I can be deeply honest about my own lived experiences, the work becomes universal,” says South African artist Igshaan Adams explores materiality, phenomenology, and identity. In his first solo museum exhibition in the U.S., Adams lined the walls and floors of SCAD MOA’s Pamela Elaine Poetter Gallery with used linoleum extracted from working-class homes across Cape Town, South Africa. The title of the show Getuie is in Afrikaans, Adams’ mother tongue, and directly translates as “witness.”

“It’s all up for grabs,” says Kenturah Davis with a knowing smile in the video about her exhibition. Everything That Cannot Be Known explores mark-making in relation to the representation of Black bodies and the intangibility of personal and collective identities. Her multilayered process includes different forms of translation: from text to image and reality to representation. Her figures often intersect with words or appear in movement. The video includes insights from Humberto Moro, adjunct curator, SCAD exhibitions.