12 • THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
X
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 25, 2003
LOCALARTISTS
Exhibit presents glimpses of war from women's view
By Amy Kelly akelly@kansan.com Kansan staff writer
For more than 60 years, the vivid and often horrific recollections in the diaries of 120 London women resided among a myriad of other World War II archives.
But Jon Keith Swindell's exhibit On Being Blue: Dream Portals and War Diaries is breathing life into the forgotten diarists' words.
"If you don't imagine what you'd look like if you were blown to pieces, there is nothing to be afraid of," Mariel Vaughan wrote in one of the archived diaries. "I just don't use my imagination."
The materials used range from an optical lens and light to fabric and wood. Swindell asked several former KU students to participate in the project, particularly with pieces that involved digital imagery.
"I just decided it was a real opportunity for me to call upon people who have expertise and many of them are students," Swindell said. "The collaborative process on my part I guess is what comes around, goes around. Learning comes full circle."
On Being Blue: Dream Portals and War Diaries, displayed at the Lawrence Arts Center, 940 New Hampshire St., examines the diaries of women who lived similar lives to Swindell's mother from 1939 to 1945. Swindell's mother lived in England during World War II with her aviator husband.
While on sabbatical in England, Swindell, professor of design at the University of Kansas, poured through archives to discover 120 diarists who would have lived and breathed the same environment as his mother.
Swindell said On Being Blue addressed the diary narratives but was not meant to be a literal translation.
"We're not trying to say, 'Here's this entry and here's the absolute, analogous result,'" Swindell said. "These pieces respond to it."
He said although digital imagery had received the spotlight in the contemporary art world, he decided not to shift his focus immediately from a handsaw to a computer.
Swindell asked former students Dimitre Barde, Carolyn Richardson, Steven Elliott, Nicola Ginzel and Marc Berghaus to contribute ideas for On Being Blue.
images, interactive narratives or materials. Swindell would build structures to encase their offerings.
Barde worked on several pieces including "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida/War Dream of Mariel Vaughan," which features the shadowy figure of a woman against a background containing a projected single tower. Although a silhouetted body is visible, most of the facial features are not only eyes peer out at the viewer.
Barde, who graduated in 1990 and is now a freelance photographer in Chicago, said he recalled vividly when Swindell asked him to participate in the project.
"I was pretty blown away by it," Barde said. "He is just one of the top instructors in my opinion. There might be 30 kids in his class and he finds a way to connect with them all."
After Barde discussed his ideas for the digital photography he wanted to use in On Being Blue, a peer-to-peer relationship evolved.
"I realized at that moment that he was no different than you or I," Barde said.
Swindell collaborated with New York artist Ginzel on "Love is All Around/Olivia Cockett," a piece that exercises the human eye. To see a woman covered in red silk, the viewers must press their eyes against an optical lens.
The artist said he changed the sizes of the holes when he realized many people would not make an effort to discover what lay behind the lens.
"This one goes more to what I wanted to do with this show than anything else," said Swindell who originally made small viewing holes for most of the pieces.
Although most of the pieces revolve around the words of women he never met, one piece standing in the center of the gallery celebrates Swindell's mother, who died after a battle with Alzheimer's disease.
"This is the one I didn't give up on," said Swindell, pointing to the Ginzel collaborative piece.
"Elevator of Dreams/Infamous Angel" towers like a steel cathedral with a glowing photo of his mother at its peak. Swindell said the piece still evoked an emotional reaction within him even though he finished it five years ago.
Swindell said On Being Blue helped him understand his family history.
When the collaborators offered ideas... Edited by Annie Bernethy.