AKIRA ?>

AKIRA

The FitzSimons Civics and Civility Initiative presents: Films Worth Talking About Even If Difficult: Akira. Directed in 1988 by Katsuhiro Otomo, based on his 1982 manga Akira.

Thursday, April 3, 6 pm, LC Visual Arts Complex Screening Room SL 24L. All are welcome. Pizza!Sponsored by the FitzSimons Civics and Civility Initiative in collaboration with the Visual Arts Program

Faculty panelists: Nushelle de Silva, Assistant Professor of Art History; Terrence Mosley, Adjunct Professor, Theatre Program; Anthony A. Berry, FitzSimons Fellow; Rachel Annunziato, Professor of Psychology, Associate Dean for Strategic Initiatives; and Stephan Apicella-Hitchcock, Clinical Professor, Head of the Visual Arts Program

One randomly chosen lucky winner will take home Volume 1 of Otomo’s AKIRA manga.

The following faculty will lead an open discussion about the film with attendees:

Nushelle de Silva, Assistant Professor of Art History. A historian of the built environment; her research is broadly concerned with the relationships between architecture and mobility from the mid-nineteenth century to the present.Terrence Mosley, Adjunct Professor, Theatre Program.

Terrence I. Mosley is a narrative-based director, writer, and performer. He is committed to exploring how collective and personal traumas shape our world. Through that exploration, he aims to build healthier, more equitable social systems.

Anthony A. Berry, FitzSimons Fellow. In this role, he helps coordinate events, programs, and other opportunities across Fordham’s various campuses, engaging the community in how to approach difficult topics with civility and how to engage the different levers of democracy.

Rachel Annunziato, Professor of Psychology, Associate Dean for Strategic Initiatives, Fordham College at Rose Hill, upcoming Vice Dean for Undergraduate Education. Dr. Annuziato is concerned with the transition to adulthood for medically ill adolescents/young adults, healthcare care management in adolescents with a medical illness, and Interactions between medical and psychiatric symptoms.

Stephan Apicella-Hitchcock, Clinical Professor, Head of the Visual Arts Program. He leads a study abroad course in Tokyo and is a bit of an Akira nerd.

Considered the most influential feature-length anime film ever made, groundbreaking in the cyberpunk genre, Akira has had an extraordinary impact on popular culture and effectively advanced anime and Japanese popular culture worldwide. The film unflinchingly takes on challenging topics, and societal messages abound pertaining to nuclear holocaust, political corruption, social unrest, the dangers of unchecked power, and the misuse of technology, as well as themes of individuals exploring identity, power, friendship, and the effects of their decisions. Akira powerfully demonstrated the potential of animation to address complicated and mature themes and became a cultural phenomenon, inspiring countless films and anime for almost four decades after its release.

Synopsis: “In 1988, the Japanese government dropped an atomic bomb on Tokyo after ESP experiments on children went awry. In 2019, 31 years after nuking the city, Kaneda, a bike gang leader, tries to save his friend Tetsuo from a secret government project. He battles against anti-government activists, greedy politicians, irresponsible scientists, and a powerful military leader until Tetsuo’s supernatural power suddenly manifests. A final battle is fought in the Tokyo Olympiad, exposing the experiment’s secrets.” —Rotten Tomatoes (91% rating).

Introduction to Kalamkari | Workshop with Nikita Shah ?>

Introduction to Kalamkari | Workshop with Nikita Shah

Thursday April 3, 2:30-5pm | Campbell Multipurpose Room, Rose Hill Campus

Limited number of free registrations here: https://forms.gle/DRsCapPNea5f22gVA

Kalamkari is a 3,000-year-old textile craft that originated as a medium of storytelling using a bamboo pen and natural dyes. This traditional art form involves at least 23 individual stages and is currently practiced only in Sri Kalahasti, India.

This workshop given by Fashion Designer Nikita Shah consists of a live demonstration and a simultaneous critical discussion of its history. Participants learn to create a simple piece of kalamkari.

WORKSHOP STRUCTURE:
Brief presentation on history of Kalamkari (30-40 mins)
Demonstration & creation of kalamkari piece (1-2 hours)

Website with more info: https://www.un-title.com/workshops

This workshop is co-presented by Fashion Studies, Art & Engagement and the Center for Community Engaged Learning.

Fordham University Visual Arts2025 Senior Thesis Exhibitions ?>

Fordham University Visual Arts2025 Senior Thesis Exhibitions

Fordham University Visual Arts
2025 Senior Thesis Exhibitions

The Fordham University Galleries
Fordham University at Lincoln Center map
113 West 60th Street at Columbus Avenue
New York, NY 10023
fordhamuniversitygalleries

Fordham University Visual Arts is pleased to announce the start of the 2025 Senior Thesis Exhibitions. Please follow our talented emerging artists as they exhibit throughout the spring semester in our Ildiko Butler Gallery and Lipani Gallery.

For further information on the exhibition, please contact Vincent Stracquadanio.
For the Visual Arts Department Website: click here.

ART & ACTION ON THE BRONX RIVER ?>

ART & ACTION ON THE BRONX RIVER

The Fall 2024 semester of “Art and Action on the Bronx River” at Fordham culminated in an array of 12 individual student projects ranging from a mini-documentary, to a dance piece, to a 24-mile walk, as well as a number of other artworks. Taught by Professor Matthew López-Jensen, the course explores the intersection of art, ecology, and history, specifically focusing on the Bronx River and the communities surrounding it. For their final projects, students were tasked with creating ambitious works that responded to the river in creative and thought-provoking ways.

REFLECTIONS: GRACE ON THE WATER

Emerging artist Tori Garcillano has taken to the Bronx River to create a statement piece that implores viewers to consider the ways in which the art of dance can allow people to honor their bodies and surroundings. Her question is as follows: dance does not only exist in studios or on stages but in the very way that we interact with the world around us.

In this video piece, Garcillano dances her choreography on a dock atop the Bronx River at Starlight Park, directly across the way from the Bronx River House. In between moments of choreography, she has added brief clips of sights from the riverbank, focused mostly on the movement of the water. Just as water
creates reflections, Garcillano views her movement as a reflection on the ways in which dance is an expansive art form that exists beyond the body itself.

Link to piece: https://youtu.be/i2AWfbS59aM

CREATURE SPOTTED IN THE BRONX RIVER

When asked to describe her piece, collage artist Julia Mancini said it all began with a question- “Can take your picture?” From here, she collected body parts: a foot from a friend, her sister’s leg, and her own two hands. Her goal was to create a physical creature, a conglomeration of the people in her life, to bring to the river. “I wanted to exaggerate the inaccessibility of reaching the river and construct a reality where I could bring all of these people there, a reality where they could even swim in it.” She sought to create a symbolic creature with Photoshop to be blown up, printed, and then secured to an outstretched cardboard box and sealed with clear packing tape.

24 MILES,
19 FRAMES,
1 DAY

Patrick Dolan embarked on a 9-hour trek spanning the entire 24-mile length of the Bronx River. His journey took him from the busy metropolis to the small forests of our city, capturing the diverse ecosystems that exist within the city’s veins.

The journey began at Kensico Dam in Valhalla, NY, and ended Soundview Park, where the Bronx River meets the East River, with the goal of trying to stay as close to the river as possible during the journey. The Bronx River, once a vital waterway, now flows through a landscape transformed
by urbanization, offering a unique perspective on the intersection of nature and human development.

Link to project: https://www.behance.net/gallery/215144205/From-Start-to-Finish-River-Walk

“Sound Waves of the Bronx River” BY CHRISTIANA STAUB

Artworks by students Maxanne Millerhaller, Nikki Phillips, Emily Torres, Olivia Griffin, Sofia Cordero, Guadalupe Vargas, Kelly Stanton, and Jonas Guzman.

URBAN DEVOTIONS: Images of Faith in the City, A Photographic Exhibition by David Gonzalez ?>

URBAN DEVOTIONS: Images of Faith in the City, A Photographic Exhibition by David Gonzalez

URBAN DEVOTIONS

Images of Faith in the City

A Photographic Exhibition by
DAVID GONZALEZ

The Fordham University Galleries
Lipani Gallery
January 21 – February 17, 2025
Fordham University at Lincoln Center map
113 West 60th Street at Columbus Avenue
New York, NY 10023
fordhamuniversitygalleries

RECEPTION JANUARY 23rd, 6-7:30PM


New York has been a city of faith, whether it’s small devotions in unexpected nooks or bold public declarations of belief. And with a global city reshaped every few generations, traditions offer a familiar and comforting touch, if not hope itself, in every corner of the city if you look. Indeed, as the writer Oscar Hijuelos once said to me about New Yorkers who go about their days oblivious to the nuances of faith: “They are like tone-deaf. They hear a piano being played and they only hear ‘thunka-thunk.’ There is this wild jazz going on called religion and some people don’t have the chops.”
-David Gonzalez
 

EMBODYING THE RECORD at UnionDocs Center for Documentary Art ?>

EMBODYING THE RECORD at UnionDocs Center for Documentary Art

On October 12, 2023, UnionDocs collaborated with Fordham University and our Center for Community Engaged Learning and Visual Arts Program, to ask how we might embody found histories.

Fordham students and Lincoln Square community members display collages they created through a workshop with Crystal Z Campbell the day before.

Workshop participants included Helen Cahill, Luisa Coutinho Gazio, Dana Ebralidze, Nicole Estelami, Matthias Lai, Nicole Miceli, Manpreet Singh, Marie Stephen, Herbert McMillon and Michael Nelson.

Beforehand, students had read excerpts from After 1921: Notes from Tulsa’s Black Wall Street and Beyond, a collection of poems, essays, and images edited by artist Crystal Z Campbell and co-published by their Archive Acts (archiveacts.com) and VSW Press.

UnionDocs hosted Crystal Z Campbell and Catalina Alvarez to present work that approaches embodiment and performance of underknown or erased histories. Crystal Z Campbell shared and unpacked their concept of “underloved archives” while Catalina Alvarez shared sequences from Sound Spring, a film that shares resonant overlaps and methodologies.

God Bless the Child | Microscope Gallery ?>

God Bless the Child | Microscope Gallery

At this multimedia event in collaboration with Microscope Gallery and UnionDocs, Fordham students taking “Intro to Art and Engagement” showed work in a program together with internationally acclaimed experimental filmmaker Christopher Harris, on March 12, 2024.

The video installation and performance by Fordham students featured interviews, field recordings, and images of historical documents related to the destruction of the San Juan Hill neighborhood and Lincoln Square community in the 1950s.

The performance was followed by a presentation of God Bless the Child, Christopher Harris’s first autobiographical work.

In God Bless the Child, Harris draws directly from his experience as a foster child. Combining photos, records, and other materials from his personal archives with 16mm film footage he recently shot in Senegal, Harris situates “the carcerality of the social welfare state and child services in relation to Black childhood in the U.S.” within the broader context of the transatlantic slave trade and the French Catholic Church’s colonization of West Africa and the Americas. His hometown of St. Louis, Missouri, is presented alongside Saint-Louis, Senegal, as fraternal colonized twin cities.

The presentation was followed by an open conversation and Q&A with the audience.

The day before, Christopher Harris had lectured on abolitionist filmmaking for various classes taught by Alvarez, as well as Fadi Skeiker’s, THEA 4050 Arts, Social Justice, and Human Rights: Foundations:

These programs were supported by a Fordham University Faculty Challenge Grant and an Interdisciplinary Research Grant.

Materials for the Arts (MFTA) ?>

Materials for the Arts (MFTA)

On September 16, 2024, students in the “Intro to Art & Engagement” course visited Materials for the Arts (MFTA), New York’s largest creative reuse center, to collect their art supplies. Everything at MFTA is free, as it would otherwise be discarded and end up in a landfill!

Afterwards, Education Coordinator, Will Niedmann, led students in a zine-making workshop, using found materials.