Curated by

Shanna G. benjamin, aSSiStant profeSSor of enGliSh

jaCkie brown, profeSSor of bioloGy

daniel reynoldS, aSSoCiate profeSSor of German

Catherine rod, SpeCial ColleCtionS librarian and arChiviSt of the ColleGe

29 january – 21 marCh 2010

faulConer Gallery, Grinnell ColleGe

Influence: Faculty Selections from Grinnell College Collections

in 2009, as part of our 10th anniversary activities,

faulconer Gallery invited faculty to participate in a

curatorial summer seminar. five faculty members from

the departments of art, biology, english, German, and

the library came together to explore the Grinnell

College art Collection and other collections on campus

and to engage in the process of selecting and

interpreting work for a future exhibition. each faculty

member approached the problem from his or her own

disciplinary background, mining the collections for

relevant materials, and proposing ways that students

could utilize an exhibition as part of their coursework.

the faculty chose the “cabinet of curiosities” as an

organizing principle. Cabinets of curiosities date back to

the early renaissance and reflect idiosyncratic attempts

to organize objects and information based on personal

and systematic schemata. early cabinets included

everything from unicorn horns to paintings, rare plants

to unusual works of local craft, presented in a way that

made intellectual sense to the collector.

for Influence, each faculty member selected art

and other pieces designed to interact in a dense,

nonlinear assembly that would spark ideas in a number

of directions. like cabinets of old, the criteria for

selection were highly personal. each cabinet is defined

as a unique space; however, there are a number of

works of art that could have been included in more than

one cabinet. in addition, the works within a cabinet

influence the reading of all the other works around it.

this cross-fertilization led to the exhibition’s theme of

influence, and we discussed how we are influenced

historically, familially, culturally, cross-culturally,

educationally, technically, contextually, and

genealogically. the academic and personal

backgrounds of the faculty influence their choices. the

exhibition will influence students in specific courses.

the installation of the pieces influences how they are

seen and understood. each cabinet influences

connections across disciplines, and so on.

work from the seminar extended into fall semester

to fully develop the cabinets and related programming.

our five original curators were reduced to four (lee

emma running, assistant professor of art, was on leave

and unable to participate). professors jackie brown

(biology), Shanna benjamin (english), daniel reynolds

(German), and Catherine rod (library) continued to hone

and refine the selections for their cabinets. kay wilson,

curator of the Grinnell College art Collection, provided

numerous suggestions, pointing each curator to new

works for possible inclusion. milton Severe, director of

exhibition design, consulted on the installation design of

each cabinet. tilly woodward, curator of academic and

community outreach, worked to shape appropriate

programming to accompany the exhibition. daniel

Strong advised on selections and arranged photography

as needed. Colleagues in the department of biology

and the burling library agreed to lend works from their

collections for the exhibition.

we thank our faculty curators for their contributions

and for their willingness to add a new activity to their

teaching portfolio. their insights will influence our

understanding of our collections into the future. and i

thank for faulconer Gallery staff for tackling another

new venture and widening the circle of influence for our

collection.

leSley wriGht, direCtor

Re-membeRed

Shanna G. Benjamin, curator

Shanna benjamin chose works that speak to aspects

of the african-american experience. She couples each

work with artifacts from her own life (quilts, scrapbooks),

and with pieces of popular culture to create a cultural

framework or influence on the art. She explores how

personal experience at every level (familial, regional,

cultural, historical) affects our appreciation of the

images depicted. this cabinet gives voice to the

untold stories behind the names in slave ledgers and

amplifies the humanity of broken bodies sold at slave

auctions. her cabinet vivifies the nameless hands that

worked the land by acknowledging the generations

that continue to meet in celebration of a collective

history grounded in narratives of survival.

Specifically, benjamin asks: how do we

understand the legacy of slavery in america? how is

the violence meted out against black bodies

represented artistically? is there a relationship

between the dismemberment of black bodies in art

and the fragmented, piecemeal invocation of black

americans and black life in the cultural marketplace?

often remembered as dehumanized bodies of labor,

how do african americans reclaim and recreate their

legacies within 20th- and 21st-century contexts?

expReSSIon

Jackie Brown, curator

“to understand, as far as is possible, the source or

origin of the various expressions which may be hourly

seen on the faces of the men around us, not to

mention our domesticated animals, ought to possess

much interest for us.”—Charles darwin (The

Expression of Emotion in Man and Animals)

“the eyes of an animal when they consider a man are

attentive and wary ... man becomes aware of himself

returning the look.”—john berger (Why Look at

Animals)

jackie brown chose works that ask us to examine the

emotional context in which we look at animals. how

are animals used to evoke our emotions? are their

emotions “authentic” or like our own? or do we project

our own on them, as we interpret their form and

movements through our own brains and experience?

how is that interpretation biased or manipulated?

does their presentation in works of art or science

affect our understanding or valuation of them?

Shahzia Sikander, Embark/Disembark II, 2004, photolithography and silkscreen, 15 x 18 inches. marie-louise and Samuel r. rosenthal fund. 2008.9.2. © 2004 Shahzia Sikander.

hale woodruff, By Parties Unknown, 1935. from the Selections from the Atlanta Period portfolio, 1931–36, printed by robert blackburn in 1996, linocut, 12 x 9 inches. Gift of donald m. Stewart ’59. 2005.21.4. © estate of hale woodruff/elnora, inc.: Courtesy of michael rosenfield Gallery, llC, new york, n.y. and magnolia means, Means family quilt, c.1959, hand-sewn cotton, 66.25 x 66 inches. private Collection.

The maTeRIal body

Daniel Reynolds, curator

daniel reynolds selected images of the material

body. these include scientific models, a crucifixion,

and images that remind us of all the ways that the

flesh embodies a complex of ideas about mortality,

spirituality, and physicality. these choices stem in

part from his interest in German expressionist and

dada art, which work to challenge received notions of

art as aesthetically pleasing. these traditions often

focus on the human body as a locus of violence and

degradation into material commodity.

the works selected here expand on the notion of

the body as physical object, suggesting that images

of the body as materiality have a wide range of

competing agendas. in selecting these works,

reynolds wants us to ask why the body as material

touches on so many cultural taboos, triggers

psychological defenses, or offends our sense of the

beautiful. the works selected are particularly good at

capturing the simultaneous delectability and appalling

reality of our physical selves as transient matter.

TexTInG

Catherine Rod, curator

for Catherine rod, text and image have been linked

for as long as she can remember. She learned to read

by looking at pictures and matching the text to the

objects represented (a is for apple, b is for boat,

etc.). the inclusion of illustrations in literary works fed

her imagination and added immeasurably to her joy of

reading. but what does text add to a work of art? why

and how do artists use text? when does text itself

become an image? these are some of the questions

rod had in mind when selecting the works for this

cabinet.

all of the works use text in some way, from tomb

rubbings and medieval manuscripts to paintings

and artists’ books. Some of the text is in languages

rod does not understand, so she cannot respond to

the meaning of the words, only to their form. how

does the presence of text influence your experience

of these works of art?

Sandy Skoglund, Body Limits, 1992, cibachrome print, 41 5/8 x 34 inches. marie-louise and Samuel r. rosenthal fund. 2001.123. © 1992 Sandy Skoglund.

linda Schwarz, Crossword III, 2007, solar plate etching and collagraph with hand coloring on handmade paper, 80 x 56 inches. Gift of maryanne ellison Simmons, wildwood press. 2009.2.