Student Gallery

We invite student submissions that respond to the question "What is feminism now?" If you would like to submit your own project for consideration, please visit our submissions page.

Adrienne Yap: One’s identity is always a tricky question to navigate, particularly in a global context. When someone asks me where I’m from, it is easy, but when I have to explain why I am not Malay, that gets a little more complicated. The reason behind this is mainly because Malaysia is such a little known country in comparison to the likes of Thailand and Indonesia.

Where I first started this project, I wanted to showcase what being a Malaysian really is, but I faced an obstacle. How do I explain what being a Malaysian is when I couldn’t really answer that myself? Being away from home for a couple of years now have amplified my experiences here in the states louder than my experiences back home. They have blended over time and it has become trickier to distinguish between the two. The obvious ones will never fade, such as the way I speak with my friens and family and the food we used to eat, but little everyday routines have muddled. I no longer eat at a fixed time with my family around the dining table, I cook pasta more than I do pan mee, I refrain from saying lahs and aiyos, and I now drive on the “other side of the road.” I miss the subtitles in three different languages we have back home when watching cable, I miss hearing the call to prayers from a nearby mosque, and I miss sitting in a mamak with my friends as we eat halal Indian food.

I set out to ask my Malaysian friends about their rituals, some that I hadn’t even noticed I had adopted until they mentioned it. The topic of relationships was trickier because it is intangible, however I soon saw a pattern amongst the minor differences between my Malaysian and American friends. Lastly, we have restrictions, which is one that separates me from fully immersing myself into this country. One a day to day basis, it is easy to forget that you are considered an alien in this country you are living in, but there are moments where it just hits you. For examples, not being able to apply for scholarships because I as an international student did not qualify. Exploring these 3Rs have helped shape a little of my understanding about who I am, but it does not fully unearth the initial question of what it means to be Chinese- Malaysian. I am merely scratching the surface of what it means to be Malaysian in the United States, but my identity is also deeply rooted in my face too, one which I have yet to fully explore in a global and national context.

Elena Grimaldi: The series I created for my final project consists of six collages, each of which explores a different aspect of the female identity. In order to produce these collages I began by asking an assortment of different women in my life what being a woman meant to them. I then used tidbits from their answers as the basis for each individual collage. The first collage in the series focuses on the place in which women have historically held in society, and how women have been controlled and silenced throughout history. The second collage also touches upon the history of women, but it is more focused on how the lineage of women before us shapes the way we are now. The third collage is a representation of the ways in which a woman’s home and family have been used to take her independence away. The fourth collage is centered around the lack of inclusive female representation that exists in the media, and how this affects the way women are perceived by society, as well as the way they perceive themselves. The fifth collage portrays how the female existence relies on and is fueled by the support of other women. Lastly, the sixth collage depicts the female resistance against the over sexualization and scrutinization of their bodies, which consumes a large part of their lives.

Although my hobby of collaging developed from an organic place, as my interest in it continued to grow I began to uncover other collage artist who showcase their work on their social media platforms. Two of these artist who particularly influenced my collages for this project were @scientwehst and @thecuadro. Scientwehst’s integration of architecture with the female form not only inspired me to think differently about the orientation of my collages, but also helped me with my own commentary on female sexuality. Thecuadro’s reconstruction of the female face impacted my decision to deform the faces in my collages and also prompted me to attempt to portray layered identities in my collages. Many other artists I looked to for inspiration, like Alicia Ross and Henrietta Harris, also obscured the faces of the female subjects present in their work. My choice to cover or deform the faces of the female subjects in my work was largely impacted by these artists, and is a way for me to comment on the detachment between many female’s real and perceived or forced identities.

Jillian Seymour: I made the visual component of my project with abstinence-based sexual education in mind. Inspired by old MTV “safe sex” campaigns and condom commercials, I made a “promotional safe sex” video. I spliced together clips from outdated sexual education videos, as well as commercials, old films, cartoons, documentaries and music videos. I oftentimes use appropriated media in my personal video work. I used my love for image-making and video collage to create something that was visually stimulating and filled with obvious references to sex, as well as symbolic nuances. You will notice many clips that are not blatant, but it is my hope that the subtle references translate. While the video, itself is not “educational,” it is meant to provoke the viewer, and promote discussion. The video is intended to be provocative, funny, maybe a bit dark, with an underlying message: Sex (and anything that may fall under the umbrella of related to sexual education) must be discussed openly and without judgment. It mustn’t be shoved into a dark box and put away. Safety and understanding oftentimes comes from humor and shameless discussion. Smothering the conversation or pretending that issues involving sex do not exist, result in misinformation.

Brandon Saloy: I knew that I wanted to share the way that Bishop arrived at that austerityin “One Art.” I wanted to reveal the process through which she whittled this poem into what it is, in the hopes that people like me, who thought the poem too fragile and small for an idea so large, could understand it’s genius. I knew that it had to be a book, because holding these drafts in one’s hand is half of the experience; to know that this was a physical process someone had to use in order for this poem to be read on any screen in the world is very powerful.

The idea was simple: I wanted readers to be able to see Bishop’s marks and scratches and scribbles in all their glory, but I also wanted them to be able to “peel” them back to reveal the actual words beneath. I decided transparency would be useful; It should allow one to see both versions at once and then have the tactile experience of removing the revisions themselves. The poem would be dissected into individual thoughts or stanzas and then followed throughout three steps of revision.

There was something I really enjoyed about bringing these long-dead pages back to life for a little while. I got to know Ms. Bishop quite intimately in working with these drafts, seeing so many things she never wanted anyone to see.