Chloe Chidester
\nIn Motion Staff Writer<\/p>\n
Picture a bird flying high in the sky. Wings spread, feathers fluttering and adjusting perfectly to the wind it seems to be riding.<\/p>\n
A bird in America symbolizes freedom, justice and hope. Now imagine a cage around that flying bird. All of a sudden, this powerful creature is trapped \u2014 still flying, but going nowhere. Do you think \u201cfreedom\u201d when you look at it now, or are you envisioning the bird flying full force into the side of its cage, falling broken and beaten to the bottom, all signs of life gone from its eyes?<\/p>\n
Daytona State College photography professor Jayanti Seiler\u2019s installation \u201cOf One and the Other\u201d in the Southeast Museum of Photography\u2019s Faculty Focus exhibition features a similar photo. One of a bird flying toward the camera, looking free and happy as can be in a large wooden room. The theme of Seiler\u2019s exhibit begs you to stop and consider your furry, feathery, and scaly neighbors in a new light. Not as game, entertainment, or food, but as companions.<\/p>\n
As you follow the path of her photographs, each untitled picture forces you to imagine the story behind it. From the man sharing a mournful moment with the head of a stag to the white tiger trapped in a tiny glass cage, Jayanti Seiler begs us to stand up and speak for those who have no voices.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, University of Central Florida associate professor Laine Wyatt speaks for the people who have voices, but don\u2019t know how to use them. Her exhibit, \u201cObsessions, Curiosities, and Fancies,\u201d is broken into five categories, each one representing a different part of her life. Her work in her \u201cInteriors\u201d stage stresses the beauty of everyday life; the barber\u2019s chair, your favorite restaurant and your own living room. People forget to look at their everyday surroundings because they\u2019re always looking for the next new and exciting thing. As Wyatt explained in her artist\u2019s talk last month, \u201cThere\u2019s a theatrical ordinariness in them \u2014 especially when they\u2019re devoid of people.\u201d<\/p>\n
Notably smaller than the other four stages, \u201cPhysiology\u201d is different in another way. Instead of being composed purely of photographs, Wyatt employed the use of woodworking. She formed parts of the body out of wood, crafted them into boxes and exposed their insides to show symbols of magic and melancholy throughout life. With these peculiar shapes on the wall, she wanted to physically show the emotions that inhabit and \u201ciconize\u201d the body. This leaves much of the exhibit to personal interpretation.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn Longing\u201d is an inside view into the mind of a woman going through a peculiar artistic journey, always looking for a sign. \u201cTime just seemed to stop,\u201d Wyatt told the audience at her Sept. 3 reception. \u201cEverything felt right.\u201d<\/p>\n
The \u201cObsessions\/Compulsions\u201d branch of photography features clothing, more clothing and a sock tree (the mystery is solved: she used a cherry picker). It becomes clear as you go further down the line of photographs that Wyatt is commenting on our \u2014 specifically women\u2019s \u2014 obsession with clothing.<\/p>\n
Finally, through Wyatt\u2019s photos in \u201cThe Fair,\u201d we discover her disdain for the depiction of women in art, who she describes in an interesting way.<\/p>\n
\u201cWomen are depicted around this fair as seeming diabolical and scary, taking on the forms of various monsters and evil creatures sent forth to prey upon the world.\u201d Wyatt said.<\/p>\n
Southeast Museum of Photography employee Suzanne Von Hacht believes that Wyatt is trying to expose society\u2019s tendency to morph women into over-sexualized creatures.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis has been happening for hundreds of years, but it\u2019s only now that we see things like that and say, no,\u201d Von Hacht said.<\/p>\n
All in all, visitors left the exhibit with a lot of questions and maybe a little depressed at the state of the world, too. But at least it opened their eyes.<\/p>\n
\u201cFaculty Focus\u201d closed at the SMP on Sept. 21. On view now through Dec. 12 is \u201cThe Growth of a Collection, Part 1: 1981-2001,\u201d which helps celebrate the upcoming Alumni Reunion celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Photography Program and the 35th year anniversary of the Southeast Museum of Photography.<\/p>\n
In honor of the roots and early history of the permanent collection of the Southeast Museum of Photography, the new exhibit highlights the first 20 years of the collection. It begins with acquisitions by what was then Daytona Beach Community College\u2019s Gallery of Fine Arts in 1981 and ends with collected pieces from 2001. The SMP is located in the Mori Hosseini Center, Building 1200.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Chloe Chidester In Motion Staff Writer Picture a bird flying high in the sky. Wings spread, feathers fluttering and adjusting perfectly to the wind it seems to be riding. A bird in America symbolizes freedom, justice and hope. Now imagine a cage around that flying bird. All of a sudden, Continue reading From oddities to animals \u2018Focus\u2019 opens eyes<\/span>