School of Visual Arts (SVA) presents “Between Two Thoughts,” a sculpture and video exhibition by current students and a recent alumnus featuring innovative approaches to the presentation of time-based works. Curated by Richard Brooks, assistant director of student galleries, the exhibition will be on view July 7 - August 11 at the Visual Arts Gallery, 601 West 26 Street, 15th floor, New York City.

In her two-channel video installation In a Manner of Speaking, Beyza Boyacioglu explores the limits of language and the impossibility of perfect communication. A projection juxtaposes a video of an actor eating an apple and its stop-motion reenactment side by side. This pairing serves as the artist’s representation of the gap between thought and language. A second video, displayed on a monitor next to the projection, shows the actual production process of the stop-motion animation. The artist struggles to direct the performer frame by frame; and the lack of precise words to describe the actor’s subtle movements makes it futile to recreate the live-action video in a frame-by-frame animation. While the projection comments on the relationship between ideas and words, the second video offers a practical demonstration of this concept. Boyacioglu is a graduate of the MFA Computer Art Department.

In her two performance videos, Ahrong Han presents a contemporary twist to the classic struggle of a solitary individual confronting a dominant socio-political system. In Lobster, the artist struggles to eat a lobster with her hands partially tied to her body. In Blow, she stands alone before a massive brick wall and vainly attempts to blow it down. Han is a current student in MFA Photography, Video, and Related Media Department.

Improving, Non-Stop is a science fiction video in which artist Faith Holland does a thorough retouching of a self-portrait to create a mask which she then wears in public and private spaces. Included in the exhibition is the companion series of still photographs, Retouch, Reform, Refit, showing every element of the artist’s face that was altered to create her “improved” mask. Holland is a current student in MFA Photography, Video, and Related Media Department.
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Combining geometric form and humor, Maximiliano Siñani’s sculptures draw inspiration from conceptual artist Marcel Duchamp. For Wheel on Wheels, the artist places chair casters on a bicycle wheel to create a witty floor sculpture with simple and elegant form. Similarly, in Cube of Unconsciousness, he fills a black metal cage with crushed red and silver beer cans. Sinañi is a student in the BFA Fine Arts Department.

Exhibition

Between Two Thoughts

SVA Chelsea Gallery