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Art professor exhibits work in ’Space is the Place’
9:46 a.m., Dec. 14, 2006--Colette Gaiter, associate professor of art, has created an interactive multimedia art installation, entitled “Space | Race,” which is part of a traveling art exhibition, Space is the Place. The exhibition, sponsored by Independent Curators International, is currently being shown at the Cranbrook Art Museum in Bloomfield, Mich., and is scheduled to go to the Bedford Gallery in Walnut Creek, Calif., the Scottsdale (Ariz.) Museum of Contemporary Art, and the Hudson River Museum in Yonkers, N.Y. Space is the Place is curated by Alex Baker, curator of contemporary art at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, and Toby Kamps, senior curator at the Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati. The primary theme of the exhibition is outer space, but Space Is the Place also reflects issues related to the technological, environmental and sociopolitical forces affecting life on Earth in relation to space. In “Space | Race, Gaiter links the space program with the civil rights movement, both occurring within the same time frame in the United States. Although Gaiter was a child and living in Germany while her father served in the army during part of that era, she said she became increasingly aware of the events that took place in the '60s. The concept of “Space | Race” came to her when she was researching the civil rights movement through old Universal newsreels in the U.S. National Archives that used to be shown weekly in movie theatres. Describing her work, Gaiter wrote, “Space and race--they seemed divergent and parallel at the same time and...had to share some common elements of our societal character. I started listing them. People hadn't given up, despite huge setbacks. Each mission had a kind of religious fervor. Masses of people were involved, although a select few became heroes.” Gaiter concluded by writing, “ I made 'Space | Race' to challenge the idea that any point of view about the space program or race relations is definitive, neat, clean or unchangeable....My work...offers an opportunity to take some memories of the 1960s off the shelf...and look at them with new eyes.” Museum-goers can see her work on a computer screen. Her interactive piece juxtaposes space and race events, such as the screen entitled “marchwatch,” showing civil rights marchers and people watching a space launch, or another, “changewait,” showing white supremacists and the first African-American astronaut in space, Guion S. Bluford. Another segment superimposes part of Martin Luther King Jr.'s “I Have a Dream” speech and the famous statement, “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind” from Neil Armstrong as he set foot on the moon. In 1999, Gaiter traveled to South Africa, and the result was her first web site [www.digidiva.net/sa], contemplating similarities and differences between being black in South Africa and in the United States. After taking continuing education courses at Parsons School of Design, Gaiter began working with computers in 1982 and continues to learn new software and technologies on her own. She has worked in interactive multimedia since 1990. A graduate in graphic design from Carnegie-Mellon University, she received her master's degree from Hamline University in 1999. Gaiter began her teaching career at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design and later taught at the University of Minnesota. She joined the UD faculty this year from Columbia College in Chicago, where she was coordinator of web and multimedia courses. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, and she also has lectured and published extensively. To view some of Gaiter's work, visit [www.digidiva.net]. Article by Sue Moncure |
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