First Student Exhibition Debuts at Here Here Gallery
by Cat Richert

For the first time since Oberlin College aquired use of the Here Here Gallery in downtown Cleveland, the space will be entirely dedicated to student work. Entitled Translations of Ashe. Transforming Spaces: Art as Ritual, the show will display the work of professor Adenike Sharpley’s students who have been enrolled in her class “Ritual and Performance I: The world according to the Yoruba and their descendants in the New World” this semester.
The Yoruba are a people with a common heritage of speech and tradition rather than a so-called “nation-state.” Although most people who speak Yoruba live in Nigeria, the influence of the Yoruba language is far-reaching; its influence can be seen in many cultures all over the world such as, Brazil and Cuba. The Oberlin course book describes the class as an exploration of “religious phenomena, performance, and artistic ‘agency’ of the Yoruba and their descendants.” In turn, the main focus of the class was on ritual, ancestory and its place in art to help the students create their own nommo, the Yoruban word for the “construct of a ritual.”
Now turn to Here Here Gallery in the busy Playhouse Square in downtown Cleveland. Through dance, spoken word, installation and other forms of expression, Sharpley’s students will display their constructions of ritual. For some of Sharpley’s students, like sophomore Rachel Schaffran, the content of the class has proven to be quite a journey; this can be seen in Schaffran’s combined performace and installation piece. “It is basically the physical manifestation of my connection to my ancestry. In addition to the Yoruba, I’ve learned a lot about my family and about myself,” Schaffran said. Schaffran feels that these realizations are consistent with the class’s emphasis on ritual. “Ritual,” as defined by the class is “a space or act, in which the physical and spiritual meet, that soothes, heals, aligns and suspends,” Schaffran said. “This could be anything from going to McDonalds with your best friend every Thursday night to being mounted by spirits.”
Similarly, Amanda Gill also pays homage to her ancestors, and specifically her mother in her dance and sculpture piece. “In my ritual I am honoring my mom, Teri, in the presence of the Yoruban orisha Oshun,” writes Gill in her artist’s statement. “My mother is ill with rheumatoid arthritis, a disease that has no ‘cure,’ in the Western doctor’s book of medicine. Therefore I am seeking from the god of medicine, Babalu Aye, another cure.” Gill describes the physical elements of her work as “a yellow doll-like figurine of my mother…with beads and gold transforming her into a queen. With the body of my mother in my hands, I will work the spirit through dance and transmit it into her.”
The Here Here Gallery is highly conspicuous to a broader audience due to its location, and this factor played a role in the student’s creations. “It’s been a process that’s involved a lot of synthesizing of the things we’ve learned in the class, studying ourselves and really evaluating what’s important to ourselves, and coming up with a way to piece those together,” sophomore participant Tim Gibbon said. “Since these projects are pretty personal and intimate, putting them up in a big public gallery may make me feel a bit exposed — but I feel good about it, and I think we’re all going to be really proud when the exhibit finally pulls together.”
Schaffran feels similarly about having her work displayed in such a respected and exposed venue. “A big theme of it is accountability so it was more about being true to myself than worrying about any specific audience. It’s a strange thing to put on display in a gallery, but I am very proud of it I put an immense amount of time into it, and people can think what they want. I think they will get the message,” she said.
But it seems this knowledge of exposure due to the interdisciplinary nature of Sharpley’s class has allowed participating students to re-evaluate their own ideas about art and expression. Schaffran admitted that the class has been a deciding factor in her decision to pursue a visual arts major. “This is the biggest and most personal thing I have ever created… this class opened up a completely new channel of my expression. “

A reception will be held Dec. 7 at 8 p.m. Translations of Ashe. Transforming Spaces: Art as Ritual will be at Here Here Gallery through Jan. 25.

December 6
February 2002

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