{"id":2647,"date":"2016-07-06T13:59:39","date_gmt":"2016-07-06T17:59:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/creativearts\/?p=2647"},"modified":"2016-07-06T13:59:39","modified_gmt":"2016-07-06T17:59:39","slug":"alejandro-duran-returns-to-vassar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/creativearts\/2016\/07\/06\/alejandro-duran-returns-to-vassar\/","title":{"rendered":"Alejandro Dur\u00e1n returns to Vassar"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Creative Arts Across Disciplines\u00a0is proud to welcome multimedia artist, Alejandro Dur\u00e1n, to campus this summer. I first met Alejandro when he visited\u00a0Professor Paravisini-Gebert’s course, AFRS\/ENST 258: Environment and Culture in the Caribbean,<\/em>\u00a0in the fall of 2015. Because I was so impressed with his lecture and the conversation with students that followed, I have been in conversations with him ever since about finding a way to bring him back to\u00a0Vassar.<\/p>\n

When looking at the various \u00a0programs that engage the Vassar community\u00a0during the summer months, Dur\u00e1n seemed like an obvious choice for a visiting artist. His work is truly interdisciplinary and could appeal to anyone studying the sciences, humanities, arts, or any combination thereof. \u00a0When you learn more about The\u00a0Washed Up Project<\/em>, I think it will be clear how his work with discarded objects offers an interesting alternative to the\u00a0material culture explored by Universal Collection: A Mark Dion Project,<\/em> currently on display in the FLLAC through next semester.<\/p>\n

Check out a recent article from Time <\/em>that lists Dur\u00e1n alongside other artists in celebration of “World Ocean’s Day”, celebrated on June 8th:\u00a0http:\/\/time.com\/4358434\/world-oceans-day-art-marine-plastic\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Please join us for the lecture, the workshop, or both. For more information, see below for the links to each event.<\/p>\n

July 7<\/b>: Washed Up: a lecture with Alejandro Dur\u00e1n in Rocky 200 at 5:00pm.<\/div>\n

\nWhat is the Washed Up Project?<\/i>
\nWashed Up is an environmental installation and photography project that transforms the international debris washing up on Mexico\u2019s Caribbean coast into aesthetic yet disquieting works.
\nOver the course of this project Dur\u00e1n has identified plastic waste from fifty-three nations and territories on six continents that have washed ashore along the coast of Sian Ka\u2019an, Mexico\u2019s largest federally protected reserve and an UNESCO World Heritage site. He uses this international debris to create color-based, site-specific sculptures that conflate the hand of man and nature. At times he distributes the objects the way the waves would; at other times, the plastic mimics algae, roots, rivers, or fruit, reflecting the infiltration of plastics into the natural environment.
\nMore than creating a surreal or fantastical landscape, these installations mirror the reality of our current environmental predicament. The resulting photo series depicts a new form of colonization by consumerism, where even undeveloped land is not safe from the far-reaching impact of our culture of disposable products. The alchemy of Washed Up lies not only in transforming a trashed landscape, but in the project\u2019s potential to raise awareness and change our relationship to consumption and waste. (http:\/\/www.alejandroduran.com\/<\/a>)<\/p>\n

link to event on CAAD calendar:\u00a0http:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/creativearts-calendar\/event\/washed-up-a-lecture-with-alejandro-duran\/<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

July 21<\/b>: A workshop with Alejandro Dur\u00e1n (The Old Bookstore in College Center)<\/div>\n
\n
Following a lecture on July 7th, Alejandro Dur\u00e1n will be returning to Vassar to share his expertise with students who are on campus during the summer. The specific content for this workshop will be presented at the end of the lecture on the 7th.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Alejandro Dur\u00e1n was born in Mexico City in 1974, Alejandro Dur\u00e1n is a multimedia artist now based in Brooklyn, New York. Through photography, installation and video, his work examines the fraught intersections of man and nature, particularly revealing the pervasive impact of consumer culture on the natural world. He received an MA in Teaching from Tufts University in 1999 and an MFA in poetry from the New School for Social Research in 2001.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Dur\u00e1n received En Foco\u2019s 2011 New Works Award, was included in the 2012 Bronx Biennial of Latin American Art, and was nominated for the 2014 and 2015 Prix Pictet and the 2016 Prix Thun for Art and Ethics. He has exhibited his work at the Galer\u00eda Octavio Paz at the Mexican consulate in New York and was Hunter College\u2019s Artist-in-Residence for 2014-2015 with his solo show, Washed Up: Transforming a Trashed Landscape.<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
\n
link to event on CAAD calendar:\u00a0http:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/creativearts-calendar\/event\/alejandro-duran-workshop\/<\/a><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Creative Arts Across Disciplines\u00a0is proud to welcome multimedia artist, Alejandro Dur\u00e1n, to campus this summer. I first met Alejandro when he visited\u00a0Professor Paravisini-Gebert’s course, AFRS\/ENST 258: Environment and Culture Read more about Alejandro Dur\u00e1n returns to Vassar<\/span>[…]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7445,"featured_media":2653,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2647","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/creativearts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2647","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/creativearts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/creativearts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/creativearts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7445"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/creativearts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2647"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/creativearts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2647\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2652,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/creativearts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2647\/revisions\/2652"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/creativearts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/creativearts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/creativearts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/creativearts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}