Students ‘Reflect’ on Harvard Experience

The Harvard College Women’s Center’s fourth art show exhibits works by eight Harvard undergraduates seeking to describe the “Harvard experience” through self-portraits.

About 30 artists, friends, and even a few freshman parents filled the Women’s Center when the show opened at 7 p.m. Friday night. The media used in the students’ artwork ranged from photography to silk-screening to newsprint collages to dot stickers.

While the subjects of the self-portraits spanned a broad spectrum, two of the artists placed a special focus on gender non-conformity.

“The show brings such good energy to the space, and it is really lovely to see fellow classmates so creative on issues of gender, identity, and sexuality,” Women’s Center intern Chiazotam N. Ekekezie ’08 said.

Ekezie said she was impressed by the medium used by Sally H. Rinehart ’09. Rinehart used Avery sticky dots—small circular adhesive labels, to compose two parallel portraits in different sets of colors, resulting in a unique form of pointillism, the style often associated with Georges-Pierre Seurat.

Artist Katherine M. Bringsjord ’09 referred to her piece as a “psychological self-portrait.” Mounted next to a depiction of herself—which shows Bringsjord posed in front of a refrigerator, milk bottle in hand—is a letter explaining her work.

“This piece was about me learning to control the way people view me,” the letter reads.

Andres Castro Samayoa ’10, an intern at the Women’s Center whose art is featured in the show and, said it was “exciting” to use the theme of the Harvard experience to reflect upon his time here. He combined work from his freshman year with new material, hoping his art would help him figure out how those experiences fit together.

Castro Samayoa said he is also looking forward to working in the newly decorated Women’s Center.

“The show really adds to the dynamic of the space and gives it a fresh feel,” he said.

The show, entitled “Reflections: Harvard Student Self-Portraits,” will be on display for the rest of the semester, according to the show’s curator, Lisa J. Miracchi ’09.