FOCUS ON VISUAL ARTS
VISUAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES
VES: Autobiographical Marks in a Digital Age
VISUAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIESPaul Stopforth is an artist, a Lecturer on Visual and Environmental Studies (VES) at Harvard, and Director of Undergraduate Studies at the VES department. A native of South Africa, he established and co-directed the alternative Market Gallery in Johannesburg’s Market Theater complex. Stopforth studied at the Johannesburg School of Art and was awarded a British Council Scholarship to attend the Royal College of Art in London. OFA Director of Programs Cathleen McCormick spoke to Stopforth about VES directions.
What is the VES faculty most keenly considering in departmental discussions?
The influence of digital technologies has been evident in contemporary
art for a number of years. This radical expansion in the range of expressive
materials is visible in work produced by artists throughout the world,
and the future development of the VES department will take into account
the profound influences of these choices.
Stephen Prina, our newly tenured studio faculty member, is an artist who
has worked extensively in the fields of performance, video, and installation.
He
is also a musician and composer. Stephen will play a major role in the process
of identifying and formulating the direction this department takes in the future.
How might a prospective student who, say, paints in oil, consider a future
at
VES or in the professional world?
The death of painting has been predicted over and over, and, thanks to practicing
painters, it flatly refuses to remain quiet. It is unclear to what degree the
presence of the hand, the autobiographical mark, will continue to be significant.
It’s not a question of traditional practices being replaced, but how the
technologies influence these practices. The considerable acclaim given recently
to the El Greco, Philip Guston, and John Currin exhibitions in New York indicate
the imaginative power painting continues to have in our lives.
As long as there are young men and women of feeling—who have something
to say about what it means to be human—painting, drawing, and sculpture
will continue to be used as a means of expression, along with film, video, and
photography.
How does VES approach teaching fundamentals and these newer forms?
Many students have a limited view of what constitutes a work of art in
the present; some have not worked with drawing or painting since childhood.
In sculpture,
many have never wielded a hammer. So, when I teach a drawing course, aspects
of so-called traditional drawing are certainly a part of the program. But the
choices students make, regarding what subject matter is selected and then transformed
into drawing, has to come from their own, present experience of being in the
world. This experience may, as the course progresses, include computer graphics,
comic book narratives and installations.
Painters and sculptors are increasingly using video and photography as extensions
of their practice, and we advise students who are concentrators to take advantage
of the extraordinary range of courses that are available in the department as
a whole. This fluid relationship between disciplines has been an accepted dynamic
in this department for a number of years, and will continue to be in the future.
For example, at present we have a thesis student who is a joint concentrator
in music and VES. He is a painter and is composing music as an integral part
of his thesis exhibition.
Just for the record, can you explain “Environmental Studies” and
what other areas of study at VES are?
Environmental Studies is a program that is both historical and theoretical, and
encompasses many fields and systems (small towns, shopping malls, highways, suburbs,
etc.). It is strongly linked with the Graduate School of Design. Studio Arts
covers photography, painting, drawing, sculpture, and mixed media. Film and video
comprise another area, since they are time-based, and we have a long history
of film in this department. A new area in which students can concentrate is Film
Studies, which concerns thinking about visual culture through history, theory,
and critical analysis—not practice.
What are you thinking about now in your own work?
Last summer I made a pilgrimage to Robben Island, which is just off
the coast of Cape Town, South Africa. The island has been used since
colonial times to
house political prisoners. Nelson Mandela, along with other leaders of the
African National Congress, spent many years incarcerated there until
their release in
1993. I plan to live and work on the island for at least ten days. The island
embodies and encapsulates South Africa in all of its horror and promise, and
I hope to explore and translate that into drawn and painted images.
