By Travis Walters
Professor Jenny Kuhla’s contemporary issues in photography class will present a one-night show, “Contemporary Commodities,” on Friday, March 7. The students in the
class developed the pieces that will be shown based on in-class discussions about photography criticism.
“Most of our homework has been reading articles by theorists, pseudo-philosophers and art critics,” said Carly Deyton, a fourth-year photography student. “We talked about these in class, and it really forced us to think outside of the box. We have been discussing photographs in an entirely different way than I ever thought possible.”
Cheryl Masaitis, a fourth-year photography student, said, “The contemporary issues class is focused on critical thinking regarding the photographic medium. We discussand try to define what it is that photography represents in society and how it affects us culturally.”
“Contemporary Commodities” is the result of that way of thinking. Professor Kuhla said she asked her students “to imagine a hypothetical museum of photography that held
in its collections every ‘important’ photograph ever made.” The students then created merchandise based off those images. “The objective of the show, or more generally our assignment, was to create a sort of consumer product/gift prototype that could be sold as a commodity that represents a work of art, specifically photography. The twist was to have the object possess some sort of subversive commentary on art as a commodity,” said Masaitis. “The image that we chose had to create some sort of dialogue with the piece of merchandise that we created for it,” said Deyton.
Lyndi Haja, a fourth-year photography student, created a Rubix Cube out of photographs by Edward Weston. Adialogue is created here because the movement of the cube changes the female form. Hillary Quella, a fourth-year photography student, took images by Joel-Peter Witkin and created a cookbook. Witkin is known for elegant imagesof the grotesque. By using these images, Quella creates “a funny juxtaposition of the grotesque and recipes that are supposed to be eaten,” said Deyton.
All of the students’ creations will be for sale at the show. All the work is priced within a student’s budget and all of the proceeds will be donated to Second Harvest of Savannah. “Jenny [Kuhla] pitched this idea to us, and we all agreed to do it. We have discussed some documentary photographs that have had a resounding effect on us, and some of the worst, meaning emotionally effective or raw,images we looked at were of people who were suffering from hunger,” said Deyton. “We all were moved by these images. This is just a way that we can help.” Each dollar donated to Second Harvest provides four pounds of food to those in need.
“The gallery opening will be a great event. We are all very excited and have worked hard on developing sound ideas that are accessible as well as complex,” said Masaitis. Deyton echoed Masaitis’ enthusiasm for the event. “It has really been a wonderful project and we are all really excited about what will happen,” said Deyton. “It’s a one-night only show, so we hope to get as many people as possible.”
The gallery show will be free and open to the public at Gallery 24/24 at DeSoto Row from 7-10 p.m on Friday, March 7.
Photo credit: Carly Deyton
