"Whiteness" is an elusive concept. In an attempt to address this often times confusing and debatable social construction, a group of artists have decided to present their own perceptions and ideas of whiteness through paintings, sculpture, photography and collage.
The University's Bayly Art Museum currently is home to an exhibit titled "Whiteness: A Wayward Construction." According to the Bayly Art Museum Web site, the exhibit was initially organized by California's Laguna Beach Art Museum, and the University will be the only Eastern venue for the celebrated collection.
The exhibition features a variety of artists' interpretation of whiteness, and as a whole, addresses not only the racial and social construction of whiteness, but also how that construction relates to history, class, region and gender.
Several observers in the museum said that the whiteness exhibit was beyond anything they could have imagined and unlike anything they had ever seen.
The exhibit "is not something you would see everyday in an ordinary art museum," said Charlottesville High School student Kaleigh Gilpin, whose Advanced Placement English class was touring the museum Wednesday.
One room of the exhibition housed a large and incredibly detailed piece called "Mulatto Nation," by Lezley Saar. Saar's life-size construction was set up like a gift shop, displaying items for sale that featured images of famous bi-racial celebrities, such as Mariah Carey and Sinbad. Items for "sale" included bumper stickers with provocative statements such as "Make Mulattos, Not War" and "Uppity Mulattos Unite." Abstract images and representations of the combination of whiteness and blackness also were included in the piece.
Third-year Commerce student Casandra Bruce said she enjoyed Saar's work.
"My favorite work was the Mulatto Gift Shop, featuring the intermingling of blackness and whiteness," Bruce said.
Organized in another room were paintings that many students felt were the most surprising and startling pieces of the exhibit. Several students deemed artist Erika Rothenberg's work the most provocative.
Third-year College student Ethan Machemer, a student docent at the University Museum, said Rothenberg's piece, titled "There's No Better Country on Earth," was one of the most powerful works in the exhibition. Rothenberg's painting depicts images of suffering related to America. Representations of slavery, lynching, the Vietnam War and other violent aspects of America's past are painted below a shining horizon, above which float four blond, bright-eyed, smiling white faces.
Gilpin cited Rothenberg's painting, "You Can Cure Yourself of Racism," as one of the most provocative. Designed to look like an advertisement, this painting depicts a white man with Ku Klux Klan cuff links using nasal spray (labeled as an anti-racism medication), while in the corner, a smiling black woman holds the spray toward the audience.
Across the room from Rothenberg's paintings is the art of Mark Steven Greenfield. Greenfield's pieces include enlarged photographs of white men in blackface with superimposed eye charts over the photos. As Gilpin's AP English class wandered into the room, a docent directed their attention to the pieces and asked the students what they thought the artist wanted to express by placing the charts over the photographs. The students had no response.
Observers of the exhibition said they thought the "Whiteness" collection was an important contribution to the museum and relevant to the racial issues prevalent at the University.
Third-year Alex Karlson said she thought Travis Somerville's painting "Flag Day" was applicable to some areas of the University's culture. One of the main features of the painting is the statement "One Flag or No Flag," written in large letters above the image of a Confederate flag folded into the form of a KKK hood.
"I think that 'One Flag or No Flag' makes a statement about culture at U.Va.," Karlson said. "Many people have this mentality that they can embrace the Confederate flag and that it's okay. It's interesting that [the flag] is in the shape of a Ku Klux Klan hat and that has such a symbolic meaning. People don't understand that for many people, the Confederate flag is viewed that way."
Bruce also said she believed the exhibition was relevant to the University.
"I'm happy to see an exhibit like this on Grounds, where racial tension grows out of a lack of understanding of how race shapes a person's point of view," she said.
Machemer, however, said that as a docent at the museum, he has seen some negative reactions.
"Because one of the exhibits involves a dead person's hair and a dead person's toenails, people kind of pull back from that," Machmer said.
Machemer also said some groups avoid the exhibition entirely.
"In my experience, some of the groups we have coming in for tours don't want their students to see [this exhibit] because of the meaning behind all of the images," Machemer said.
While many University students and teachers have reacted passionately to the exhibition, Machemer said the older docents at the art museum seem to have a different perspective from most observers.
"I haven't seen a strong reaction either way opposed to [the exhibition] or not," Machemer said.
Machemer went on to say that through his interactions with the older docents, he has noticed their sense of intrigue in trying to interpret the meaning behind the art.
The docents and other observers may not have to wait long before getting some answers to their questions about the meaning of the artwork. The museum is holding a symposium Nov. 20 called "An American Study: Whiteness," during which the exhibit's artists will take part in a panel discussion about their art and their motives behind it. The symposium will be the final part of "Localizing Privilege," a five-week program that addresses issues of whiteness and privilege in the context of the local community.
The "Whitness" exhibit will be on display at the Bayly Art Museum through Dec. 23.
Machemer said that the curator from the Laguna Art Museum who organized the exhibit also is coming to speak next weekend.
For many students, the whiteness exhibition was a mind-opening experience. Bruce said the exhibition gave her a fresh perspective on whiteness and on race in general.
"I haven't ever considered the meaning of whiteness," Bruce said. "That's the main reason I enjoyed this exhibit's provocative look at how having (or not having) white skin affects a person's experience in America."
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