Neil L. and Angelica Zander Rudenstine Gallery

As the only exhibition space at Harvard devoted to works by and about people of African descent, the Du Bois Institute’s Rudenstine Gallery is a welcome addition to the campus. Named in honor of former Harvard President Neil L. Rudenstine and art historian Angelica Zander Rudestine, in recognition of their contributions to African and African American Studies and to the arts, the gallery hosts rotating exhibitions and accompanying artist talks. Its curatorial mission is to support both historical and contemporary practices in the visual arts.

Now in the Gallery (Through June 30, 2008):

Gallery Hours: Monday - Friday, 9AM - 5PM

 

Past Exhibitions:

Carrie Mae Weems  
All About Eve:
Women, Sex, and Desire
September 24 - January 3, 2008

"Carrie Mae Weems shows up at the right historic moments, blending with an imperfect past. In her most recent film, Italian Dreams, 2006, Weems is both siren and taskmaster, drifting through the halls of Cinecittà in Rome like she owns the place. (Cinecittà opened in 1937 and later was the studio where Fellini shot most of his films from 1950 to 1990.) She is also the perpetual outsider, rifling through history in an attempt to settle the present. Weems has a broad timeline and a specific mission to probe race, gender and power through her photographs, films and installations while organizing history through its re-stagings."

Excerpt from:
Cheryl Kaplan, THE SCREEN TEST: CARRIE MAE WEEMS UP CLOSE
Essay copyright: © Cheryl Kaplan 2007. All rights reserved.

Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons Bojeo: Traces in a Fragmented History

Bojeo, signifying “navigating through a territory” in Spanish, was an exhibition of mixed media, featuring photographs, early-printmaking photogravure, and video. Campos-Pons says of her work “the art of the African Diaspora is an act of searching our own histories, our selfidentity, in the New World.”

Paul Stopforth Being Here and Not There: Fragments and Reliquaries from Robben Island

The mixed-media installation, Being Here and Not There: Fragments and Reliquaries from Robben Island, by South African artist Paul Stopforth presented mundane objects as sacred. Created while he was a visiting scholar at Robben Island, Stopforth had this to say about the exhibition: “Like fragments of the true cross, they are at once insignificant and holy, discards as well as witnesses to the ongoing, shifting nature of our lives and our histories.”

Isaac Julien and Sunil Gupta Looking for Langston: Images by Isaac Julien and Sunil Gupta

The photographs that comprised the exhibition, Looking for Langston: Images by Isaac Julien and Sunil Gupta, were taken by filmmaker Isaac Julien and cinematographer Sunil Gupta, during the filming of Julien’s groundbreaking film of the same name. Looking for Langston is a metaphoric reflection on African American poet Langston Hughes and is a non-linear narrative that includes footage of 1920’s Harlem and unflinchingly explores his life as a gay man.