Earlier this January, seniors that take AP Literature II got to attend the Carnegie International.
The Carnegie International is the oldest exhibition of contemporary art in North America. Created by Andrew Carnegie, the International was held to increase the collection at the Carnegie Museum of Art.
This year’s curators, Daniel Baumann, Dan Byers, and Tina Kukielski, decided not to declare a theme to the Carnegie International. This was the job of the viewers, including the AP students.
Upon their return, the students were challenged by their teacher, Mr. Youngs, to create their own exhibition inspired by pieces at the Carnegie International.
Each student had to take a piece of their choice and analyze that work of art. They would then decide the themes found within the art.
From there, the students had to match the theme of their art to a theme within the art.
The students then had to match the theme of their art to a theme within literature, movies, music, other works of art, and/or games.
In addition, the theme had to represent “here and now”, our world today.
The students had free reign to represent things in society today however they pleased. There was no exact way to represent or interpret the art and theme.
With this, the students dug out their inner artists and created their own exhibitions.
Originally, the students thought the projects were tough to go about, but came around to liking them.
“I like creating something. I liked getting to build something,” said Logan Tuite.
The representations varied. Some students used physical parts of their allusions such as book covers, screenshots of a movie, or pieces of a game. Other students took a more abstract approach by representing their items through symbolic objects and photographs.
Each exhibition was also displayed differently. There are displays in shoe boxes, some that appear poster-like, and others that have no case at all.
The themes chosen varied from deterioration to repeating the past to the flaw of the educational system to the definition of pain. There was no shortage on interpretations and ideas.
To clarify and expand on their ideas, each student also had to write a curator’s essay. Here they discussed deeply the themes and connections to the Carnegie International that they had represented.
The exhibition of exhibitions is currently on display in the floor two rotunda and will remain there for the time being.
View all the students’ projects and curator’s essays more closely on the AP Literature and Composition blog.
