Blind Origin will be on view at Brown’s Joukowsky Institute for Archeology and the Ancient World from April 17 - May 31, and explores the use of art to reinterpret archeological objects. Artist and Professor Judd Schiffman responded to objects selected from the Joukowsky Institute’s collection by creating a new series of ceramic sculptures. Interweaving these transmutations with his personal accumulation of imagery, this work speaks to the meaning, stories and power we ascribe to objects, ancient and contemporary. In his talk, Schiffman will discuss some of his previous work which investigates the relationship between objects, identity, and culture and will speak to the energetic and aesthetic ways we interact with the world around us.

Judd Schiffman is a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Art Department at Providence College and a Providence based artist working primarily in ceramics. His work explores the reinterpretation of family heirlooms, personal mementos, and historic artifacts into sculpture. In the studio he explores the use of clay as a drawing material and evokes a psychedelic concoction of real and imagined experiences that ponder the power of our personal stories.

Project/Exhibit Curation by Pinar Durgun (Curatorial Assistant, Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology, Brown University) and Project Coordination by Jessica Porter (Operations and Events Coordinator, Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World, Brown University)

This exhibit recognizes and highlights those voices that have too long been buried beneath the dominant narratives in archaeology. Hidden Figures aims to recognize the lives, scholarship, contributions, and stories of archaeologists from minority or historically marginalized communities to archaeological research, past and present.

Throughout Rhode Island Hall, [email protected] have placed images and biographies of some of the hidden figures in archaeology. We invite you to find them (some are more hidden than others - look carefully!), to learn about their lives and contributions to our field, and to suggest the names of others you would like to add to our exhibit.

Find out more about [email protected] and the hidden figures in this exhibit at:
www.brown.edu/go/trowelblazersatbrown

Transient Matter is a student-organized and curated exhibition of artifacts linked to the migrant and border crossing experience and collected from the island of Lesvos, on the Greek-Turkish Border. It was prepared as part of the course, MGRK1210: A Migration Crisis? Displacement, Materiality, and Experience, taught by Professor Yannis Hamilakis. It asks us to reflect on the physical traces and remnants of border crossing, and invites us to understand the phenomenon paying attention to “small things forgotten”, to life-vests, thermal blankets, prayer mats and other personal objects that migrated and crossed borders together with humans. It addresses the whole assemblage of border crossing and migration, from migrants to volunteers and solidarity networks, and foregrounds both the agony and pain of displacement as well as the resilience, determination and inventiveness of the new nomads of our age.

Transient Matter can be found in spaces on the first, second, and third (mezzanine) floors of Rhode Island Hall and will be on view until Fall 2019.