With the cancellation of all on-campus events due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Lunch with the Arts series, a series put on by the Thorne-Sagendorph Gallery to highlight faculty artists and their artwork, was also canceled.
Jonathan Gitelson, an associate professor of art and design, was going to give a lecture on his career as an artist. Gitelson said, “I believe it is really helpful for students to learn about how careers and practices evolve over time. When I show work to students, I usually begin with some of the photographs that I made when I was in college.”
The lecture was also going to also talk about Gitelson’s art on display in the Faculty Exhibition in the Thorne. The pieces in the exhibition were of Gitelson’s public art project “Are You Here?” (2015-16).
“The project consisted of a series of roadside billboards featuring a white background with black text reading ‘Are You Here?’ This question, which references the phrase ‘You Are Here’ often found on highway rest area maps, was meant to engage passersby on multiple levels,” said Gitelson, regarding his pieces on exhibition at the Thorne.
“Other than a literal statement regarding geography, the phrase ‘Are You Here?’ was also a metaphysical question meant to encourage motorists to be more fully present and mindful of their experience at the particular moment they encountered the message,” Gitelson said.
The 14 billboards were placed throughout New England and upstate New York during the summer of 2015. Photos of these billboards were exhibited in the Brattleboro Museum and Art Center in Brattleboro, Vermont and Gallery Kayafas in Boston, Massachusetts. A billboard was also commissioned for the deCordova Sculpture Park in Lincoln, Massachusetts in 2016.
Gitelson said, “[My work is about] exploring the small details of everyday life and the traces of ourselves that we leave behind. I have made work about my morning commute in Chicago, about margin notes found in secondhand books, about the last pile of snow in the town where I live and the recurring theft of the garbage cans outside of my apartment.”
According to Gitelson, his inspiration comes from “the everyday.”
“I can get really inspired by the light coming in the window or an overheard conversation. I’m inspired by learning about the history of a place or a person, I’m inspired by the experience of being a husband and father. I’m especially inspired by genuineness of spirit, by music, [and] by Albert Camus,” Gitelson said.
Gitelson said of the now-canceled lecture, “I was going to give an overview of my career as an artist. I believe it is really helpful for students to learn about how careers and practices evolve over time. When I show work to students, I usually begin with some of the photographs that I made when I was in college. I’m sad that this talk was canceled. I was looking forward to sharing my work with our students.”
To see more of Gitelson’s work, visit his website at jonathangitelson.com.
Tom Benoit can be reached at
tbenoit@kscequinox.com
