Jon Rubin , Assistant Professor of Art
Tent Show TV

Tent Show TV is a storefront for the research, production and exhibition of experimental video works that are based entirely on the surrounding Garfield/Friendship neighborhood. Exploring the neighborhood as a complex social, physical and economic eco-system, works produced through TSTV will be exhibited and distributed through its neighborhood storefront, programmed onto Pittsburgh Cable Television, and presented and archived on the TSTV website. Ideally, this will be the pilot for an institution that can move nomadically throughout Pittsburgh, each season relocating to a new neighborhood and storefront while maintaining its context-specific approach.

Edith Balas, Professor of Art History
The Hoka-Néni Symphony

Dr. Edith Balas, Professor of Art History, will discuss her project to create a multimedia symphonic performance inspired by a series of paintings and their interpretation: seven paintings that narrate a coherent story will be shown one by one on a large screen, while the audience listens to the commissioned symphony and reads an interpretation of the paintings. The series of paintings, entitled Hoka-Néni, is the work of Valentin Lustig, a Hungarian-Romanian artist residing in Switzerland. The subject is the life and temptations of an ordinary housewife from Cluj in Transylvania, who faced persecution in WWII. The music is being written by Eduardo Alonso-Crespo, an Argentine composer.  

Beryl Schlossman, Professor of French
Art, History, and Images of the Feminine in Baudelaire's Paris

   "Art, History, and Images of the Feminine in Baudelaire's Paris" provides a central theoretical focus for a major application of comparative and historical techniques for the study of European literature, art, and culture. Schlossman's goal is to enhance the understanding of early French modernism through an interdisciplinary approach to Baudelaire's use of visual images in his literary art. Her project explores the relationship between Baudelaire's works and the fine arts, and Baudelaire's impact on modernism. It examines the influence of French literature and culture on theory in light of Walter Benjamin's theoretical treatment of Baudelaire and Paris during the Second Empire. She will discuss her recent research trip to Paris.

Osman Khan, Visiting Assistant Professor of Art
Return to Sender

The project Return to Sender reconstitutes ‘limbs’ out of junk mail  (unwanted/unsolicited paper mail) and attaches these ‘limbs’ back onto trees whose branches have been cut. The project is an exploration of consumerism in light of ecological and environmental concerns erstwhile offering a recycling response that is more provocation than solution to current green and sustainable practices. The project also hopes to engage various neighborhoods and residents in shared participation of construction and installation of the limbs.