Houston Hall art exhibit deals with human rights

Among the ten artists whose work is displayed in the show are University undergraduate and graduate students, in addition to local artists. The works are primarily of mixed media, and on Friday there was also a performance art piece. Most of the works in the show were created last Monday on Locust Walk as part of Amnesty International's "Art Day." According to Jason Soslow, a College senior and director of Art Day, the purpose of Art Day was to "publicize Amnesty's work to the Penn community, to show that human rights is an issue." Soslow said he hopes the public display made people realize that Americans have "the ability of expressing their conscience in ways which people in other countries do not." Soslow said that many of the works depict "the face which is faceless of people who 'go missing,' " meaning that they were "abducted by the government and hidden from public view." "These faces are struggling to be seen, and trying to resolve these faces and making them public is what Amnesty International is all about," Soslow said. The common theme is human rights and amnesty, and many of the pieces are very topical, focusing on Tiananmen Square, Tibet, Albania and the Middle East. Artist Rob Kirsch, a graduate student at the Annenberg School, created a piece in reaction to the Middle East situation. The work shows the word "peace" written in Arabic, English, and Hebrew. "My work is done not just with a theme, but as a piece of agitation, a way of provoking thought or discussion," Kirsch said. "Something political does no good if it's sitting on someone's walls," said Kirsch. "If my work can be of some use, use it." Kirsch is distributing his design idea across the country, and will be printing it on T-shirts. Each of the five exhibits by the Penn Student Gallery this year has had a different theme. Steve Gross, a College junior and Director of the Penn Student Gallery, said that the Gallery "is trying to reach out to the Penn community, and by having these different themes, it's a way of doing that." "While we exist as our own entity as a gallery, it has worked well collaborating with Amnesty International for such an important cause," Gross said. Alex Brubaker, a Wharton and Engineering Senior, was one of the approximately 50 people who attended the opening of the exhibit. He said that he appreciates the artwork because "there are many different places around the world where human rights are not observed." The last art show by the Penn Student Gallery this year, In the Spirit of Humankind is located in the Bowl Room of Houston Hall, and will be open Monday through Friday from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. through April 26.

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