Cj Daly, a sophomore at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts and the creator of Plunge Gallery, spent last semester planning and executing their new exhibit “Curated Self.” This student art exhibit opened on Saturday at the Brookline Arts Center.
Daly recently spoke with the Daily about the experience of pulling together the exhibit.
“There’s a lot of times you go into professional gallery spaces and it’s really intimidating, especially if you’re just trying to get into art, and you’re just trying to enjoy it,” Daly said. “So I wanted to create a space that was more welcoming, more inviting, and you didn’t have to feel fearful of not knowing what’s going on, … breaking down what art is and how it is created to make it more accessible to people. That is how I came up with the name Plunge, because I was plunging into art.”
Daly had a show last year in the Terrence Gallery, located on the second floor of the SMFA. Though they appreciated that opportunity, Daly wanted their gallery’s next exhibit to be in a space more accessible to the public.
“I wanted more of a space and not just shoving kids’ art up in the hallway,” Daly said. “I want to give kids an opportunity to have their art actually be seen.”
After coming to this decision, Daly began reaching out to places that had open calls. The Brookline Arts Center gave Daly the opportunity to curate the show in its space, and thus “Curated Self” was born.
In forming the body of “Curated Self,” Daly had a clear vision in mind.
“It’s artists presenting self portraits and then along with their self portraits, they’re presenting a written work, either their diary, or their sketchbook or a poem,” Daly said. “Whenever you make art, you have an audience in mind, you are thinking about the viewer. … You know that people are going to see you in a certain light, and you’re presenting yourself how you want to be seen. But then, with say a diary, it’s so much more vulnerable because in your head [you think] no one is ever going to see this. And so it’s asking artists to be really vulnerable with the audience.”
Plunge Gallery presented “Curated Self” on Saturday in an opening reception starting at 6 p.m. This reception featured performances from three student musicians which amplified the exciting atmosphere of the event. While listening to live music, spectators had the opportunity to walk through the front room of the Brookline Arts Center, where most of the student art was displayed.
The front room held sculptures, ceramics, patchwork quilts, tapestries, wood carvings and other mixed media pieces. Robbie “Double B” Moser-Saito displayed a piece titled “BOY ORGAN VI: YOU WERE ANGELS,” made of ceramic, water, pump and soil. The explanation of Moser-Saito’s work states, “much of my visual work is an effort to capture the feeling of my racing stream of consciousness, not unmarked by the psychosociocultural conventions that shape me.” Many of the pieces had journals and other written work displayed next to them that viewers could flip through. Miguel Caba presented a bound book which was comprised of a collection of Google Earth screenshots from the eight-hour route that led between their two relatives’ houses in the Philippines.
Video pieces were also displayed in the same room as the live music: a video diary by Hami Trinh, and a piece that explored Asian American identity titled “Nobody Told us how to Fix a Leaky Ceiling” by Julia Yoo. In a work of performance art, Isabelle Cordero sat at a table doing a drawing trading performance wherein an individual sat on the other side of the table and they drew each other. They would have the opportunity to keep Cordero’s drawing or hang it up. Isabelle would then give them a note saying “come sit with me” along with instructions to give this note to someone that you see all the time but don’t really talk to. The piece reinforced Daly’s original themes of unification and vulnerability through art.
“Curated Self” is a unique and compelling exhibit, diverging into important topics while giving student artists opportunity. It will be available to view through June 4 at the Brookline Arts Center.
