VCFA MFA in Graphic Design alumna and FIT faculty member Sondra Graff’s thesis installation “traversingwithonions | or in pursuit of the butter chair…” is currently in New Views 2016, an FIT Art and Design Faculty Exhibition. New Views 2016 is curated by Professor Karen Middleton.
New Views 2016
Opening reception:
Monday, March 7, 2016, 6–9 pm
Fashion Institute of Technology
John E. Reeves Great Hall
on 28th Street west of 7th Avenue, NYC
Exhibition dates: March 5–20, 2016
“The illusive voices of the kinesthetic and cellular are essential. The conjoining of multi-leveled sensitivity can lead to fluid processes that in turn, support working from one’s core. This for me is where synthesis lies.” – Sondra Graff
traversingwithonions, evolved as the encapsulated metaphor of her VCFA journey. Tadoh, a form codified through interdisciplinary endeavors, conjoins aspects of Dada, Butoh, existentialist philosophy, absurdity and improvisation. Sondra’s work traverses the struggle for essentiality, moving on a continuum, melding years in dance, design and pedagogy.
Layered pages are suspended – there is no back, there is no front.
An onion, the symbolic impetus, drove this body of work.
How does one balance an egg?
Studies with Poppo Sharaishi and Mariko Sanjo evoke the sparse imagery.
How does one work from an internal place?
A place known by those who dance, a place that we entitle core.
Years of training with Nadine Revene, Jaclynn Villamil and Mary Hinkson grounded the interior process.
How does one synthesize a life?
The program at VCFA in conjunction with advisors Yoon Soon Lee, N Silas Munro, Natalia Ilyin and Matthew Monk (my thesis advisor), have supported a richness of methodology – giving time, focus and dialogue in cognitive, preconscious and intuitive space.
The audience may enter, peruse or observe.
Collaborative assistance: Lauren Robie, Mia DiMaio, Jaclynn Villamil, Stacey Katz, Debbie Katz, David Gates & Katie Grove
The challenge to transport/mount/reconfigure the installation was immense. It could not have been accomplished without the help of Susan Matthews, Elizabeth, Moffett, Laura Suhok, Demid Lebedevs and FIT’s exhibition staff, who offered a tremendous level of support.
Images 2—4, photography by Anthony Pagani.
