The Tufts University Art Gallery brought a new level of "cool" to campus when it hosted artist Alex McQuilkin to show and speak about her work yesterday.
"We came across Alex's work at the Armory Show [in New York]," Director of Galleries and Collections Amy Schlegel said. "We were delighted to find it and jumped on her dealer."
McQuilkin, a recent graduate of New York University, showed six of her short films and discussed each with the audience of students, faculty, as well as her friends and family in attendance. According to Schlegel, McQuirkin has been exhibiting her work since before her graduation.
"All [personal] experience has subjectivity," McQuilkin said. "There is no objective experience." She said her work brought the experience to the viewer on a level of objectivity.
According to McQuilkin, a central theme of her art is the inability to see the woods for the trees. "It's missing the actual existence because you're so caught up in the immediate existence," she said. "Combining the superficial and silly with meaningful."
McQuilkin first showed a short film called "Fucked." Throughout the video, the central character attempts to apply make-up while having sex.
"My work investigates things on different levels [including] bad humor," she said. "[It] took this intimate, important action and completely warped it to let the viewer objectively watch it. The girl is completely 'fucked' because of her situation."
The film was attacked as child pornography at a showing in Brussels, according to McQuilkin. She had to tell authorities that the actress was 18, and that the film's action was entirely faked.
Viewers of the film attempted to find a deeper symbolism of the character's specific application of make-up.
However, McQuilkin said her work focused on the overarching idea of experience. "The thesis is not that she's putting on make-up but she's preoccupied," she said. "There is no new experience."
Many of the films focused on teenage female characters and the melodramatic themes of that age. "Your experience may seem like nothing, but it's everything," McQuilkin said. "For these characters it's life or death."
"I focus on teenagers because it's a time period where everything is bigger," she said.
Her film "Get Your Gun Up" emphasized her point. She explained the concept of the work as "the idea of power structures."
Showing two bikini-clad women in a western dueling environment, she described the work as "the ultimate male struggle combined with seeing some girls in a bar very subtly competing."
"It is humorous because they don't have weapons but the stakes are just as high," McQuilkin said.
Finally, McQuilkin commented on self-portraiture in her work. "It's the need to document yourself, the fear of death," she said. She said that the fact that her characters are obsessed with themselves shows her obsession with herself as an artist.
McQuilkin's work is currently shown in the Aidekman Arts Complex as the second of a three part "New Media Series."
Before Tufts, McQuilkin has exhibited in Brussels, Copenhagen, Paris, Madrid and Frankfurt. She will have her first solo exhibition in New York City soon.
