FIU’s Frost Art Museum Embraces Peace
The Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum at Florida International University presents three exhibitions focusing on peace, impermanence, and the human condition. “The Missing Peace: Artists Consider the Dalai Lama; En Vista, Eduardo del Valle and Mirta Gómez; and l a c u n a i n t e s t i m o n y, Navjot Altaf” opens with a reception on October 9, 2009 at 6 p.m.
“The Missing Peace: Artists Consider the Dalai Lama,” artists were asked to create works in honor of the Dalai Lama and as a result a collection of tapestries, photographs and paintings were created with multiple images, themes and media that mirrors the many roles the Dalai Lama plays within the world. The artists not only explore the Dalai Lama himself, but also discover and explore other layers of the leader. The exhibition includes work by Chuck Close, Laurie Anderson, Bill Viola, Jenny Holzer, Anish Kapoor, Richard Gere, Marina Abramovic, and Michele Oka Doner, among others. Each artist’s interpretation will inspire, engage, and educate. The Missing Peace is funded in part by Funding Arts Network and The Charles Wei-Hsun Fu Foundation.
“The Missing Peace: En Vista,” a new exhibition, by the husband and wife team of photographers Eduardo del Valle & Mirta Gómez, displays an astonishing journey into the transformation of the human form after death. In the rural cemeteries of Yucatán, Mexico the dead are not normally embalmed before burial. Typically, the remains are unearthed after three years in the ground and transferred to an ossuary or makeshift container for all eternity and for all to view. En Vista offers a strikingly beautiful and memorable selection of 17 chromogenic photographs, printed by the artists from original negatives. The exhibition opens with an insightful excerpt from The Labyrinth of Solitude by Octavio Paz.
Continuing the journey into the human condition is celebrated Indian artist Navjot Altaf who uses photography and videos in her installation “l a c u n a i n t e s t i m o n y” in an attempt to listen to the testimonies of those affected in communal riots in India’s Gujarat State in 2002. Her video raises questions about whether one can enumerate and describe often opaque and confounding events and how events in India are relevant to violence and oppression throughout the world. Navjot Altaf’s video installations reflect her interest in a broad range of art media, societal issues and social unrest. She lives and works in Mumbai, India.
View “The Missing Peace” at the FIU Frost Museum for its opening reception on October 9 from 6 to 9 p.m. The event is free and open to the public and is on view through January 10, 2010. Museum hours are Tuesday – Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday 12- 5 p.m.
