Welcome to the online exhibition of Unitus!
Unitus is an exhibition that aims to facilitate a dialogue of student experiences during the pandemic through their artworks, creating a greater sense of unity, inclusivity, and understanding between students and staff. The art exhibition features Ohio State artists in a huge range of mediums – from painting and glass to written prose and moving image – that are brought together in one space to represent the interests of the Ohio State community. With Unitus, we hope to represent the range of creativity that came out of the OSU community despite, and even inspired by, these unprecedented times. Each Buckeye faced a different set of challenges during the Coronavirus pandemic. Although we were all affected differently, we are united in certain aspects– we are students. We are resilient. We are artists.
“Unitus” is the Latin word for “united.” By striving towards greater representation and understanding through art, we hope to move closer to the goal of creating a more united campus community. We hope to address the range of experiences one can have in these difficult times and inspire hope that beautiful work can be created even in the darkest of times. By presenting the artwork in an online format, the exhibition intends to be as accessible as possible, celebrating all kinds of art and hoping to make students feel welcomed and included as they settle into Spring Semester 2022.
Unitus is organized and curated by Jessica Lieber and Yana Artemov with assistance by Jacklyn Brickman.
Aaron Burleson
Dressmaker
36" x 49"
Acrylic and thread on canvas
"This painting is inspired by Le Pho’s Nativity, from 1943. I started the work in January of 2021, slowly building it up to its immense size. I was living in a small studio apartment in an attic, riddled with maintenance issues and feelings of isolation one year into the pandemic. But I was hopeful for the year and used this piece as a way to recenter myself onto the primary task of just working."
Addison Diehl
Untitled
35 mm film photography
2021
"Brain on fire
Split into two
Watching and doing and seeing
How does that work?
I see and I control
Yet I don’t, and that’s me?
No way that’s me
Am I?
But who is?
Independent and alone, yet not lonely
Am I two?
Or three?
Or none at all?
I have lost myself
Inside myself, and I have been gone for too long.
I need lavender to choke me and roses to breathe for me
Because the tape has lost its stick and the glue has crusted
So, its quickly chipping away,
The me that I am is not the me that I was,
Or the me that I will be/
I thought I found me, and I did but is it me or is it a lie
in my head and all made up?
I a and I do and I think and I see and hear and feel,
But then I see again and suddenly I no longer do."
Andi Wolfe
Earth, Water, Air, and Fire
Camphor burl and glass sculpture with 82 pieces of sculpted glass
5.75 X 5.25"
"I took several OSU glass classes during the pandemic. Because of the restrictions during that time, I did not have a partner during my hot shop time. I worked on sculptural glass, and also learned how to cast glass and bronze. Earth, Water, Air, and Fire – a camphor burl and glass sculpture, 5.75 X 5.25 inches, with 82 pieces of sculpted glass. The form is turned, carved, and dyed with ink."
Emi Harned
Untitled
Mixed media
"Pondered:
The pandemic has forced me to carefully examine all my relationships, including my relationship with my country and community.
Fears:
Other than the only worsening climate crisis, I would say my strongest most recurring fear is to be ostracized.
Comfort: My mom and rain."
Gideon Smiley
Photo Study of My Younger Brother's View
Photo collection
Spring 2021
"In a time when much of life became progressively repetitive and monotonous, I, like many spending more time at home, found solace in the surroundings of my family, and in particular, my five-year-old brother. Through his young eyes the world was still anew and wondrously full of light and discovery, which often helped to bring some color back into my own increasingly grey outlook. Using the camera lens, I attempt to capture such wonder in its subtle momentariness, accenting each image with my subject’s own words to hopefully share a fresher view on living, if only in a naive and childish voice."
Ira Graham
Untitled
Photographs
"In the past two years, I have witnessed many changes to myself and the world around me, and with that has come some major changes to my photographic style and visual language. Throughout the pandemic, I've made a shift towards intimacy and vulnerability in my work, and I know that now, more than ever, many of us are realizing just how much we value our connections with the people we hold close, while simultaneously building better relationships with ourselves.
The photographs that I am presenting are what I feel best represent the supportive role that we, and the people we love play in the presence of isolation."
Jacob Silverman
Forgive
Watercolor pigments on watercolor paper, graphite, and pen
8" x 5”
2021
Apprehensive
Watercolor pigments, graphite, and pen on watercolor paper and digital editing for sizing
8" x 5”
2021
"The speed of day-to-day life slowed down greatly during the pandemic, but life itself was still a whirlwind from personal struggles of unchecked mental health. During this time dissociation and disconnection between my physical and emotional bodies were present. I learned it’s best to let go of situations in order to let myself feel emotion. This work is a representation of cracking the hard outer shell of the physical body, allowing the emotional body to leak out and be free."
Jess Rappaport
Bier Stube Documented No. 1 & No. 2
Digital Photography
2021
"The Bier Stube has been open since 1966 and has changed very little in that time. As the pandemic arose, the bar was forced to make many adjustments very quickly to adhere to safety guidelines. These photos capture how COVID-19 intruded on something special to me and many others, demanding that something timeless change."
Sydney Kit
A Laney Day
December 2020
"Due to the working from home nature of quarantine, I have had the opportunity to observe my dog in her daily routine.
Typically, dogs' routines would go unwatched, unnoticed but I gained this opportunity to have that routine watched and noticed.
This animation is dedicated to all the dogs that joyously adjusted their routines to adapt to our new work life."
Jessica Lieber
Photosynthesis Series
Chemi-Lumen print on expired Kentmere photographic paper, organic material, lemon juice, liquid plant food, rainwater
2020
"During the pandemic I found solace in nature. When I walked the woods with my son, none of the world’s problems or politics seemed to matter. Nature was our escape from what was happening all around us. I applied my increased interest in nature to my alternative-photographic works during this time, often using organic materials found in my garden or during my hikes. I let go of control of the final product and experimented with exposure, motif, and the use/misuse of various chemicals applied to the photographic paper."
Kelly Patrick
Angel
Digital Scans of Glass Object
"During the pandemic, I realized the value of focus. My only in-person class took place in the glass studio. Working with glass requires a great deal of patience and acceptance of failure; the results end up carrying a sense of magic. The nature of glass allows for endless iterations in documentation, and the subtleties of the material forced me to develop a reverence for it. I am grateful for the power of light, as well as its unpredictable nature. In a time of disconnect, I found comfort in the beauty the lay just beyond my control."
Joey Birdsell
butch
Video
2020
Josephine Birdsell is a junior studying art and sociology at The Ohio State University. Their short film, Butch, explores their gender identity as a non-binary lesbian by depicting daily acts of gender non-conformity.
Reid Donato
Lorenzo’s Receipt
Pen on paper
3” x 6.25”
"Looking back at my experience during the height of uncertainty surrounding COVID and the pandemic and the work I made during that time, I notice that I didn't want to acknowledge the effects of COVID on my life, I wanted to put it out of my mind and forget it. But in revisiting this particular work I think about the implications of its small scale (it mimics the actual dimensions of a receipt). It reflects using my living space as a studio and the relevance of an artifact from an ordinary shopping trip, which after the most intense period of lockdown at the beginning of the pandemic felt like a significant event."
Sabina Aguirre
On Isolation 1 & 2
Digital Photograph
2020
"This piece is titled On Isolation 1 to show the place I sat during my Zoom classes every day, surrounded by the medicine I had to take just to get out of bed in a world on fire. This was the beginning of my isolation within isolation.
On Isolation 2: This piece features my sister in a bathtub fully clothed. This is an actual recreation of how I spent some of my nights. The close walls being a sense of comfort, I saw all that I could control."
Sumner Dobrava
2020
When COVID-19 hit America with a frenzy, I was trapped in the unfamiliar territory of Atlanta, Georgia. I didn’t know what to do except turn to my camera for comfort. These images are from the beginning of it all, when the world turned upside down.
Yana Artemov
Scenes from Quarantine 1/3 (Awo in Her Room)
Oil on panel
12” x 12”
Scenes from Quarantine 1/3 is the first of a series exploring relationships with interior spaces. I explored a repetitive encounter I had with my roommate during the lockdown. The oversaturated space has exciting moments of color and texture variation, while the figure takes a break from her studies. Whenever I knocked on her door to catch up about the day, she was in this position; days in isolation, in the same place, start to blend, and these safe spaces become our worlds."
Sydney Summey
Environmental Light series
Digital Photographs
2021
"Environmental Light discovers solace despite the fears of not knowing what the coming days will bring. It is the desire for true rest in times of uncertainty, rest in our unending inquiries, but also learning to rest in the right to simply be. In my journey of being, I’ve captured the hope for the peaceful communion of present and self."
