Enshroud
January 18 – February 1, 2008
Part 1: Cecille R. Hunt Gallery
Part 2: Snowflake/Citystock
The Cecille R. Hunt Gallery and Snowflake/Citystock are pleased to present Enshroud, an exhibition organized by students in Webster University’s Introduction to Curatorial Studies course. This exhibition brings you a commentary on the current state of the university’s “private collection” of art, whereas by using two separate venues, the installations are to be viewed as a balanced diptych. As part of the practical element of the course, Enshroud was developed from a discussion about the continued relevance of Walter Benjamin’s writing from 1935: “Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” resulting in a dialogue about this collection and a means in which to present it. Enshroud is named as such given much of the collection is in storage and is “hidden”, “covered” or “concealed” from public view. Using a violent subtext, the deconstructed installation of a selection of works from Webster’s collection in the Hunt Gallery, presents this concept both physically and metaphorically as a “crime scene” with direct reference to Benjamin’s writing on a new stage of photography. “The cult of remembrance of loved ones, absent or dead, offers a last refuse for the cult value of the picture.” Alternatively, the installation at Snowflake/Citystock directly refers to Benjamin’s concerns about the withering away of the “aura” of an artwork: “Even the most perfect reproduction of a work of art is lacking in one element: its presence in time and space, its unique existence at the place where it happens to be.” By presenting the ambience of a “wake” and using photographic reproductions of chosen work from the collection with pieces by artist’s such as David Hockney, Tim Rollins and Georges Braque, among others, Enshroud is pointing directly to the absence of the work while simultaneously comparing it to the loss of a human “soul” and what was a “unique existence”.
This exhibition has been organized as a practical element of the Introduction to Curatorial Studies course at Webster University in which students were encouraged to explore alternative processes and approaches to curating as an artistic, social and critical activity and as part of group collaboration.
