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ICAExhibitions: 2024

Objects and Power

Installation view of work included in the Objects and Power exhibition. A gallery of frames is on the back wall, sculptural book shelves on the left, and two sculptural pieces on the right.

Objects and Power, installation view with work by Samuel Levi Jones, Nyeema Morgan, and Michael Rakowitz | Photography by Joel Tsui '16, Salt '17, MFA '19

Dates

  • On View: October 4 – December 13, 2024
  • Reception: Friday, October 4 from 5:00 – 8:00 pm, ICA

About the Exhibition

Objects and Power is a group exhibition that examines the systems surrounding collections, investigating how history is told through the processes of acquiring and presenting art, artifacts, and texts. Objects and Power features ten artists whose work examines the roots of collecting and museums; instances of extraction, theft, and erasure; themes of Indigeneity, access, and ownership; and examples of artists and community groups telling stories and giving value to objects on their own terms.

Participating artists include:

  • Morehshin Allahyari
  • Maya Tihtiyas Attean (member of the Penobscot Nation)
  • Samuel Levi Jones
  • SaraNoa Mark
  • Nyeema Morgan
  • Gala Porras-Kim
  • Michael Rakowitz
  • Sara Siestreem (Hanis Coos)
  • Stephanie Syjuco
  • William Villalongo

Objects and Power was developed to serve as a living laboratory, with themes woven throughout the curriculum at Maine College of Art & Design. The work featured in the exhibition opens up a series of conversations about the role and responsibilities of institutional collections. Objects and Power challenges audiences to question one’s role in the process of making and invites agency in navigating art world systems.

Generous support for the exhibition was provided through the Jeremy Moser and Laura Kittle Fund.

Events

  • Visiting Artist Talk with Samuel Levi Jones
    In partnership with MECA&D’s Academic Studies department
    Monday, October 7, 2024, 12:00-1:00pm, Osher Hall, MECA&D Campus
  • “Objects & Indigeneity” student-led conversation with Casey Matȟó
    Tuesday, October 15, 2024, 3:00-4:00pm, The ICA at MECA&D
  • ReadyReMade led by Assistant Professor Benjamin Spalding’s OBJECT OBJECT OBJECT class
    October 21 – November 2, 2024, Bob Crewe and A&GA window galleries
    Artists: Olivia Brown, Gracie Crow, Landen Farrell, Stan Lambert, Jess Lee, Christina Morse, Anna Nahlik, Maggie Novatka, Emma Roche, Jai Luc Santoro, Augustine Schug, Zachary Toomy, Bea Wallace, Lexi Wu

    Thrifted, gifted, found and manufactured. Presented in tandem with the ICA’s Objects and Power, ReadyReMade is a student exhibition of a collection of objects exploring grief, empowerment, myth, comfort, and memory through a variety of modified readymade objects.

    Taking inspiration from Mike Kelly’s work regarding love hours, as a representation of the unseen emotional value embedded into the mundane, ReadyReMade relies on language, staging, context, and displacement to heighten the latent magic residing within these objects.
  • Trans Objects and Representation” student-led conversation with Lyra Miller
    Thursday, November 14, 2024, 3:00-4:00pm, The ICA at MECA&D
  • Objects and Power Book Display
    On view through December 13, Joanne Waxman Library
    In partnership with MECA&D's Joanne Waxman Library and in conversation with the ICA's exhibition, Objects and Power, this book display features work that interrogates how the acquisition, organization, and presentation of information, art, artifacts, and archives reproduces or disrupts systems of power. The full list of publications can be found here.
  • Adventures in Art
    In partnership with MECA&D's Master of Arts in Teaching program, the ICA hosted over 250 junior and high school students for activity-based tours of Objects and Power.
  • Decolonization and Institutions, panel discussion with Rose Logie, MECA&D Assistant Professor of Art History; Sayantan Mukhopadhyay, Assistant Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at Portland Museum of Art; moderated by Julio Rivera '24
    This event will be rescheduled for a future date.

Press

Portland Press Herald: A powerful show at MECA&D raises questions about the display of art - November 25, 2024

State of the Art: Objects and Power - October 27, 2024

Portland Press Herald: What you can learn from Maine’s college art museums this fall - August 23, 2024

Objects and Power, installation view of main exhibition area showing sculptures and framed gallery. Photo by Joel Tsui.
View of Stephanie Syjuco, Block Out the Sun, 2021. Projection video of black and white photography with a hand blocking certain elements. Photo by Joel Tsui.
Gala Porras-Kim, Leaving the institution through cremation is easier than as a result of a deaccession policy, 2021. Close-up shot of the framed text element. Photo by Joel Tsui.
Gala Porras-Kim, Leaving the institution through cremation is easier than as a result of a deaccession policy, 2021. Full view of the piece including the shelf with the handprint impression and the framed text to the left. Photo by Joel Tsui.
Gala Porras-Kim, Leaving the institution through cremation is easier than as a result of a deaccession policy, 2021. Close-up view of the box attached to the wall with a impression of a handprint in white powder. Photo by Joel Tsui.
Maya Tihtiyas Attean (member of the Penobscot Nation), Mikwidahamin/Portal, 2024. Full shot of the ring-shaped sculpture with wooden posts and photographic textile sheets and moon projection on black wall. Photo by Joel Tsui.
Maya Tihtiyas Attean (member of the Penobscot Nation), Mikwidahamin/Portal, 2024. View of the ring-shaped large sculpture with wooden posts that have rocks around the bottom, and photographic textiles that go around the ring.Photography by Joel Tsui.
Maya Tihtiyas Attean (member of the Penobscot Nation), Mikwidahamin/Portal, 2024. View of the bottom of the sculpture showing the wooden posts with rocks and dirt at the bottom. Photo by Joel Tsui.
Maya Tihtiyas Attean (member of the Penobscot Nation), Mikwidahamin/Portal, 2024. Partial view of large ring-shaped sculpture with wooden posts, photographic textiles, and rocks on the bottom of the posts. Photo by Joel Tsui.
Street side view through the windows of Maya Tihtiyas Attean (member of the Penobscot Nation), Mikwidahamin/Portal, 2024. View of the sculpture and moon projection. Photo by Joel Tsui.
Installation view with work by SaraNoa Mark, Samuel Levi Jones, Nyeema Morgan, and Michael Rakowitz. Shows hallway into the main exhibiton space with sculptures against the right and left walls and a gallery of frame paintings on the back wall. Photo by Joel Tsui.
Close-up shot of SaraNoa Marking "Guarding Invisibility." A series of small, delicate metal abstract sculpture against the wall. Photo by Joel Tsui.
Work by Michael Rakowitz and William Villalongo. A table stands in the center with small sculptural elements enclosed in a glass case. A sculpture of a bust is in the left corner and a painting is to the right. Photo by Joel Tsui.
Painting by William Villalongo, showing a dark background with expressive imagery radiating from the center of the canvas.
View of Michael Rakowitz, May the obdurate foe not be in good health (Palmyrene funerary bust), 2020. Straight-on view of sculptural collage-style bust holding right hand up and gold birds on left hand. A smaller human figure in on the right shoulder and a typographic element is inscribed over the left shoulder. Photo by Joel Tsui.
View of Michael Rakowitz, The Invisible Enemy Should Not Exist, 2022. Close-up of small sculptural figurines with a card tag for each one. Photo by Joel Tsui.
View of Morehshin Allahyari, ماه طلعت Moon-faced, 2022. AI-generated imagery projected through an arch-shaped screen with a mirror frame. Photo by Joel Tsui.
View of Morehshin Allahyari, ماه طلعت Moon-faced, 2022. AI-generated imagery projected through an arch-shaped screen with a mirror frame. Photo by Joel Tsui.
View of Nyeema Morgan, Soft Power. Hard Margins., 2020. Straight-on view of a gallery of framed iconic paintings with a typographic element laid over them and gold foil. Photo by Joel Tsui.
Installation view of work by William Villalongo, Michael Rakowitz, and Sara Siestreem (Hanis Coos). Photo shows a shelf with three ceramic baskets in the far right, a table with small sculptural elements enclosed in glass in the center, and an expressive painting to the left. Photography by Joel Tsui.
Installation view with work by Samuel Levi Jones. Showing two bookshelves with sculpture books within it and a rug underneath. Photo by Joel Tsui.
Installation view with work by Nyeema Morgan, Michael Rakowitz, and SaraNoa Mark. Photo shows a series of delicate typographic sculpture on the right, a table with small sculptural element enclosed in glass and a sculpture of a bust in the center, and a gallery of framed painting on the left.
Sara Siestreem (Hanis Coos), this clam basket stops pipelines, 2022. Straight-on shot of three sculptural baskets on a glass shelf. The left and right baskets are a natural white color and the center basket is black. Photo by Joel Tsui.
Sara Siestreem (Hanis Coos), "this clam basket stops piplines," 2022. Close-up shot of two ceramic baskets on a glass shelf. One is a natural white color with a teal interior and the other is all black. Photo by Joel Tsui.
Installation view with work by Samuel Levi Jones and Gala Porras-Kim. A sculptural bookshelf with a rug is on the left and a small sculpture on a shelf is to the right. Photo by Joel Tsui.
Installation view with work by Michael Rakowitz and William Villalongo. A sculptural collage bust is on the left and an expressive painting is to the right. Photography by Joel Tsui.