It was only after Katie Shulman created her sculpture pieces, “Soft Body No. 1,” “Soft Body No.2” and “Hard Body No.1” that she decided to never use new materials to create her artwork. Using recycled bra straps, bed sheets from Goodwill and clay, her work mimics bleached coral reefs muted from their former vibrancy.

Shulman isn’t the only artist creating work that connects to trending socio-political issues. Other local art institutes like Light Work are also featuring works that provoke discussions around race. The “Rubbish” exhibit at the Everson Museum of Art, where Shulman’s pieces are on display, looks into the current state of consumerism and waste.

The embracement of these issues comes with an added benefit, said Scott Manning Stevens, director of Native American and indigenous studies at Syracuse University. The hope is that if people are provoked by art from controversial topics, the public will be more engaged. This phenomenon is called presentism.

Though museums are typically nonprofits and can rely on funding from grants instead of net profits, Stevens said museums still aren’t free from economic burdens. One way to promote revenue is by curating relevant pieces that interest the public. These pieces can be socio-political.

Often, Stevens said, people believe museums serve as a place to store historic artifacts that may not have the most relevance. But, he added, by museums becoming more culturally aware, their function for being places to promote conversation becomes more apparent.

“America is famous for not paying attention to its past and not famous in a good way,” Stevens said. “One thing museums can do is to help us understand their relevance to our lives today.”

Shane Lavalette, the director at Light Work, said the growing presence in political work stems from the tensions generated by the 2016 presidential elections.

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He added that while Light Work has always collaborated with artists from underrepresented minorities who consistently create political work within the organization, he sees them leaning more political.

Currently, Light Work is featuring photographer Nicola Lo Calzo, whose exhibit is a research-based project on the local history of the Underground Railroad in central New York.

While the work looks at the tunnel system, Lo Calzo said the work can also be connected to the 400-year anniversary of 1619, when slavery first arrived in America. The anniversary first became popular when The New York Times released the like-named project earlier this year.

Lavalette said while sometimes these are happy accidents when the work of an artist coincides with current events or issues, most of the time the artist is responding to its own environment.

When Shulman was working on the pieces for the Everson exhibit, she began seeing headlines that the world only had 12 years before it sees irreversible climate change. It was this anxiety, and the climate change movement of this year, that motivated her to have this stance, she said.

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While the exhibit “Rubbish” pinpoints the problems around single-use plastic and waste, Shulman said her work isn’t explicitly political by nature. But she said she does believe audience members can sense her political values from the materials she uses.

“We’re sort of moving through this political landscape that is vibrating so harshly,” Shulman said. “I am not a person who makes political work, but I can show you my values through the way I work.”

As Syracuse museums continue to lean on either side of the political spectrum, one thing is clear: it can bring a bottom-up effect.

If artists are influenced by the world around them, this can affect what is curated in museums, which can increase attendance and thoughtful discussion, or even action.

“Sometimes it tries to act as an escape from current problems,” Stevens said. “And other times it tries to highlight them and maybe even provoke a proactive response from the viewer to go out and do something.”

Published on October 16, 2019 at 9:07 pm

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