{"id":139558,"date":"2021-05-06T09:31:35","date_gmt":"2021-05-06T13:31:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/?p=139558"},"modified":"2026-02-19T09:28:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T14:28:09","slug":"slideshow-portraits-of-the-artists-in-the-2021-senior-thesis-exhibition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/2021\/05\/06\/slideshow-portraits-of-the-artists-in-the-2021-senior-thesis-exhibition\/","title":{"rendered":"Portraits of the artists, and their artwork, from the 2021 Senior Thesis Exhibition"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The eight seniors participating in this year’s Annual Senior Thesis Exhibition opening May 7<\/a> have produced work that reflects on the ephemeral qualities of humanity, some of it created in mediums chosen in part because of the restrictions of COVID-19, and much of it with heavy emphasis on nature, from its most essential cellular level to the beauty \u2014 and utility \u2014of landscapes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fittingly then, these studio art majors\u2019 work in video, animation, ceramics, and photography reflects what life in this academic year has been so far: complex, challenging, and requiring flexibility. But beyond that, what permeates the exhibition is a sense of gratitude. For one thing, these Class of 2021 studio art majors, whose thesis work has been advised during the Winter term by Associate Professor of Art and Visual Culture Pamela Johnson and last Fall by Lecturer Susan Dewsnap, get to have a physical show at the Bates College Museum of Art, after the pandemic forced a virtual exhibition<\/a> last year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There won\u2019t be a lot of fanfare \u2014 the pandemic means no usual campuswide opening reception at the museum \u2014 but for the artists who are on campus, there will be a chance to walk with friends and family through the exhibition space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

This slideshow displays examples of the eight Class of 2021 studio art majors’ work in video, animation, ceramics, and photography; portraits of the artists are below.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/a><\/div>
<\/div>
<\/div>
<\/div>
\"A

A still from Eli Eshaghpour’s film, But at Least We Remember, showing the 1967 coronation of the last Shah of Iran.<\/p><\/div>

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\"Alex

Alex Paton, Hooch Bottle, 2020, wood and soda fired stoneware, 11 x 3 x 3 inches.<\/p><\/div>

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\"A

A still from Sakura, which mixes animation and footage from videos shot by Mari Sato.<\/p><\/div>

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\"Blaise

Blaise J. Marceau, Untitled, 2020-21, digital photograph, 42 x 64 inches.<\/p><\/div>

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\"A

A video still from Old Home by Wenjing Zheng ’21.<\/p><\/div>

<\/div><\/div>
\"Christopher

Christopher Barker, 3 Stoneware Cups, 2021, stoneware, 3 x 3 x 3 inches each.<\/p><\/div>

<\/div><\/div>
\"Carlo

Carlo Cremonini, 504, 2021, gelatin silver print, 2.5 x 4.75 inches.<\/p><\/div>

<\/div><\/div>
\"Laila

Laila Stevens, No. 7 (large blue with black lines), 2021, earthenware, 9 x 14 x 14 inches.<\/p><\/div>

<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

And already, as Laila Stevens \u201921 of Norwich, Vt. recounts, there has been a sense of relief and joy. \u201cI am extremely happy that we get this exhibit,\u201d says Stevens, who works in ceramics. \u201cI felt quite bad for the seniors last year.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She and her classmates gathered in the museum recently to begin a vital part of the thesis, the experience of mounting a show in a professional setting. \u201cWe were setting up the furniture and laying out a lot of the photographs,\u201d says Stevens. \u201cIt was a really fun process.\u201d (The museum is familiar territory for Stevens, who has been an intern there all year, focused on receiving and researching a large donation of Maine art from the late Jane Costello Wellehan \u201960<\/a>.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Studio
Studio art major Laila Stevens ’21 of Norwich, Vt., in her Olin Arts Center studio. She is a ceramicist who explores the beauty in scientific images and this year created earthenware, amorphous forms inspired by organic structures. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Stevens\u2019 works will be mounted on pedestals. Like her fellow ceramicist and studio mate Christopher Barker \u201921 of Burlington, Vt., who cites photos of deep space and microscopy shots of biological specimens such as viruses, insect wings, and neuron networks as inspiration, Stevens\u2019 art is fed by her studies in science<\/a>; she was pre-med before switching to an art track as a junior. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

She relies heavily on biological imagery for her inspiration and was initially drawn to creating representations of the COVID-19 virus. Over the course of the year, though, her work became more amorphous. \u201cPeople have told me they remind them almost of bones under skins. I have very skeletal influences, which I think were almost subconscious.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Christopher
Studio art major Christopher Barker ’21 of Burlington, Vt., poses in his Olin Arts Studio Room 132. A ceramicist, he uses his interest in the earth sciences, physics, and biology to explore a sense of depth and spatiality in his work. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Beyond science, Barker’s work is inspired by American artists Terry Winters, Jasper Johns and Brice Marden. “I found myself falling into the vacuums present in their abstracted drawings and painting,” he says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Barker has integrated those influences onto the ceramic surfaces<\/a>, aiming “to pull the view beyond the solid, hard exterior and into the realm and space created by my marks.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Alex Paton \u201921 of Charlotte, Vt., each of his utilitarian ceramic vessels synthesizes his evolving relationship<\/a> and scientific inquiry into clay, and represent \u201cinherent material life beyond the control of my touch.\u201d They are solid now, and represent \u201ca product of my hands and mind, but soon, they too will be weathered, broken and quietly cast away.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Studio art major Alex Paton ’21 of Charlotte, Vt., poses in his Olin Arts Center studio. He is a ceramicist who creates utilitarian vessels, seeking to reflect on the ephemeral qualities of humanity through the medium of clay and its many transformations. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Use of video that explores family history is a striking theme in this year\u2019s exhibit. Against a backdrop of archival news footage from pre- and post-revolutionary Iran, Eli Eshaghpour \u201921 of New York City uses the voices of his grandmother, uncle, and a distant cousin as a medium for an oral history<\/a> of both his immediate Persian Jewish family (his grandparents immigrated to Jersey City in 1970) and family who stayed behind and lived through the revolution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each relative was born in a distinct political climate in Tehran, and Eshaghpour uses them in his film But at Least We Remember<\/em> to produce \u201ca testament to the randomness of history and its subsequent effects on individuals\u2019 experiences, memories, and self perceptions.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After receiving a Stangle Fellowship last year, Eshaghpour thought he\u2019d be able to travel, including to Los Angeles to meet, photograph, and interview other, distant relatives who are more involved in the Iranian diaspora. \u201cBut COVID changed that,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Eli
Studio art major Eli Eshaghpour \u201821 of New York City in an editing suite in Pettigrew Hall. His thesis But at Least We Remember<\/em> is a film project interweaving his family\u2019s immigrant story as Persian Jews with the story of the 1979 Iranian Revolution. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Instead he uses audio recordings of his family members\u2019voices, their scratchy tonality melding with archival film footage. Interspersed sporadically in his film are images of cellular activity, inspired by footage that Laila Stevens, his fellow studio art major, shared in a class. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The footage looked cool, he said, but it also struck him that he could connect the lymphatic cancer of the last Shah of Iran to both his own family and the time he\u2019s living in. \u201cNo one really knows how much the cancer played into the Shah\u2019s decision making,\u201d Eshaghpour says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The footage, plus conversations with his family, prompted a metaphor \u201cabout our immune systems, and how free speech and protesting can be part of a country\u2019s own immune system \u2014 a protector of freedom that can heal a sick country.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Mari Sato \u201921, of McMinnville, Ore., \u201canimation has become my escape.\u201d It\u2019s helped her navigate uncertainty<\/a>. \u201cI read, watch, and listen, as I go about my life with my art in mind. In the mornings, after drinking coffee and considering the day ahead, I go to the studio or to my desk, and I pick up a pen.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Studio art major Mari Sato ’21 of McMinnville, Ore., poses in her Olin Arts Center studio. Her thesis uses animation as an answer to confinement, an escape to the infinite. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The results are a short film called Sakura<\/em>, a playful mix of animation and live-action video from footage she\u2019s taken at and away from home, including audio from feral cats meowing in Indonesia. \u201cAll are sentimental,\u201d Sato says. \u201cI focus on the feelings they emit.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n

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Wenjing Zheng \u201921 has been studying remotely from home in Wuhan, China, and her five-minute experimental, highly naturalistic film Old Home<\/em><\/a> <\/em>is heavily influenced by legendary French filmmaker Agnes Varda as well as Zheng\u2019s own deep exploration of her grandparents\u2019 lives in Qiankeng Village, the \u201cold home,\u201d a Chinese idea that describes \u201cthe place where your family and previous generations originated.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Wenjing_Sheng
Studio art major Wenjing Zheng ’21 of Wuhan, China, poses at Gaogai Mountain in Fuzhou, China. Her thesis is a video documentary about her grandparents and their farm. She is in China for the 2020-21 academic year. (Photograph by Zhao Li) <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

She spent days walking on her grandparents\u2019 farmland, learning how to identify every plant \u201cand understand how much effort my grandparents exert on them.\u201d She had imagined that this rural area, where all the residents wake at 6 a.m. to begin their farmwork, would be relaxing and tranquil. \u201cBut it turned out things were not as I assumed. It is a plain life, a cycle of waking up, working, and going to bed. Many scenes of my video show the repetitions of cooking and gardening.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are two still photographers in the exhibit, Carlo Cremonini \u201821 of Cambridge, Mass., and Blaise Marceau \u201921 of Waban, Mass. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marceau’s images join landscapes with figures, mixing realism and artifice<\/a>, trying to create a sense of mystery and narrative. He fills his spare time with mountain biking, hiking, fishing, and camping in Maine. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCapturing the natural beauty of the wilderness through photography goes hand in hand with my passion for the outdoors,\u201d he says. His spin on the form is to keep the identities of his subjects hidden. \u201cThis puts more focus on the figure as a whole.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Blaise
Studio art major Blaise Marceau ’21 of Waban, Mass., shown with his photographic prints in his Olin Arts studio. His project merges environmental portraiture and landscape photography. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Cremonini has traditionally worked in 35mm film photography. In fact, the digital course he\u2019s taken during the final semester of his senior year is the first non-analog course he\u2019s taken. But his thesis work is focused on pinhole photography he began while at home in Cambridge last spring<\/a> after his study abroad program in Florence shut down. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cVery much a product of the times,\u201d he says. \u201cI no longer had access to a darkroom.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He could set himself up with little more than a camera built from materials at hand (a paint can works well) and make his prints in a closet. Displaying this work from equipment that could cost only $30, rather than meticulously processed and printed work from 35mm film, is a form of advocacy. \u201cThis feels a little bit more like guerrilla photography, which I like because the barrier for entry is very low.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n


<\/a>Carlo Cremonini<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Studio art major Carlo Cremonini ’21 of Cambridge, Mass., poses with his pinhole camera in front of drying prints in the Olin Arts Center darkroom. Cremonini rediscovered pinhole photography during the pandemic, when darkrooms were inaccessible, and uses it to emphasize and explore the distance between the viewer and subject. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

He appreciates the kind of images it yields. \u201cYou get this kind of blurriness,\u201d he says. \u201cYou get these expressions because people are stuck in time, so there is this kind of reminder of the past, those old photographers where people look very posed and serious, but of course the subjects are very contemporary.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He\u2019s presenting the work in its negative form, and asking viewers to use their smartphones to invert them (under accessibility settings). And Cremonini is looking forward to having a chance to interact with visitors to the museum, just in case they fumble with those settings, and or better yet, want to talk about the art. \u201cI think I would get a lot out of hearing people\u2019s feelings about the work.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For this art born out of a time of isolation and confusion, ending on a note of connectivity is truly a reward.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This year’s Senior Thesis Exhibition features work by six studio art majors in the Class of 2021. See examples of their work and portraits of the artists by Phyllis Graber Jensen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1283,"featured_media":139569,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_hide_ai_chatbot":false,"_ai_chatbot_style":"","associated_faculty":[],"_Page_Specific_Css":"","_bates_restrict_mod":false,"_table_of_contents_display":false,"_table_of_contents_location":"","_table_of_contents_disableSticky":false,"_is_featured":false,"footnotes":"","_bates_seo_meta_description":"","_bates_seo_block_robots":false,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_id":0,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_twitter_id":0,"_bates_seo_share_title":"","_bates_seo_canonical_overwrite":"","_bates_seo_twitter_template":""},"categories":[11010],"tags":[1363,11341],"class_list":["post-139558","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts","tag-bates-college-museum-of-art","tag-senior-thesis-exhibition"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139558","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1283"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139558"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139558\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":172030,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139558\/revisions\/172030"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/139569"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}