Alfred Berkowitz Gallery

Sociology Lecturer Arifa Javed seeks to promote peace through understanding

nlerma — Mon, 23 Apr 2018 14:21:16 +0000

Sociology Lecturer Arifa Javed seeks to promote peace through understanding nlerma Mon, 04/23/2018 - 10:21

Arifa Javed

When Arifa Javed sees hate, she explores ways to educate.

So Javed decided to make a documentary film after noticing an increase in hate crimes starting after Sept. 11, 2001, and continuing today. The sociology lecturer wanted to show common human experience—real people with their families at home, at work, at worship, at play. But she also wanted people to share what makes them culturally unique.

“When people don’t understand, they are more likely to be afraid and react before thinking—that is true of any person around the world,” she said. “I wanted to give people a way to comfortably get an insight about different cultural groups. My overall mission is to promote peace through understanding.”

Javed recently finished her latest film, The Season in the Mist: Sikhs in America. In the 30-minute piece, she meets with several Indian Sikhs in Michigan—male and female, adult and child, immigrant and native—and records their stories and experiences.

She said although Sikhs have established a community in the United States, they often are mistakenly identified as members of other ethnic groups. Serving as writer and producer, Javed made the film with a sociological perspective, discussing Sikhs as a distinct group among Indian immigrants, highlighting their religious and cultural details.

“I noticed more and more Sikh-Americans were hate crime targets. It was confusing to me, as America is the only country in the world that is so welcoming to immigrants in allowing them survive, thrive and gives back to the society,” said Javed, who plans to screen the documentary at a film festival before bringing it to campus. “I didn’t understand how people thought they were avenging Sept. 11 by committing crimes against people because of skin color, beards or turbans.”

She said she kept noticing news stories about Sikhs killed at their places of business, their houses of worship, and an overall increase of hate crimes—which led to the FBI adding them onto their annual report on hate crimes in 2016.

“Not all hate crimes are this extreme, but they all have a negative effect on our society. Taking a step back and thinking as a sociologist, I realized that if a turban is not part of your culture, there might be fear and confusion there. And everyone who wears one might look the same to you. So let’s talk about that.”

This film follows her first documentary, Essential Arrivals-Michigan’s Indian Immigrants in the 21st Century, which she wrote and produced in 2014.

“After my first film Essential Arrival that focused on a new featured player on America's immigration stage—Indian immigrants—I decided to go further in the Indian Immigrant community and highlight some religious and cultural details of the Sikhs immigrants from India,” Javed said. She currently is working on a new film that explores the cultural identity of Indian Muslims.

Social dynamics revolving around cultural issues are the focus of Javed’s research. Javed, who moved from India to the United States in 1995, works extensively with post-1995 immigrants of varied ethnic backgrounds in the U.S., including Arabic, Bosnian, Bangladeshi, Chaldean, Pakistani and Indian immigrant families.

Javed said she’s thankful for the people featured in her work who have given their time to share their experiences. And she’s thankful for audiences who have taken the time to listen. She said both students and community members are genuinely interested in their stories.

“There isn’t much out there that represents the Indian way of life in immigrant literature. So I wanted to create these films to provide information to a broad audience and give a platform to have discussion,” she said. “It is a privilege to be able to take a look into others’ lives and learn from them. It’s also a privilege to teach. I’m putting both of these together to promote understanding and plant seeds of peace.”

Faculty Research

Alfred Berkowitz Gallery

College of Arts, Sciences, and Letters

Behavioral Sciences

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Mon, 04/23/2018 - 14:20

Her new documentary, The Season in the Mist: Sikhs in America, shares the experiences of Indian Sikhs in Michigan.

News

New art exhibition explores The Art of the Comic Book Cover

nlerma — Mon, 08 Jan 2018 17:40:06 +0000

New art exhibition explores The Art of the Comic Book Cover nlerma Mon, 01/08/2018 - 12:40

Zap! Pow! Bam!

Guest curator and collector Corey Gross has spent his life amassing a substantial and impressive collection of comic books dating from the 1960s to present day. He proudly owns almost every Iron Man issue ever created.

Zap! Pow! Bam!: The Art of the Comic Book Cover, which runs at the Alfred Berkowitz Gallery Jan. 18 through April 7, features the best of Gross’s remarkable collection and focuses on the idea of the printed comic book cover as an art object. The exhibition displays around 250 comic books that showcase themes prevalent throughout the history of the art form including a large selection of Iron Man comics that illustrate the evolution of comics over the last fifty years.

The exhibition also features several pieces of original artwork, on loan courtesy of Western Michigan University Art Collection, that were used to print comic book covers, and that provide viewers with a greater understanding of how comic books are produced.

Thematic groupings of comics include:

Social issues in comics
Gimmick covers of the 90s
Non-superhero comics
Superhero pose covers
Unusual text integration/title banners
Use of super powers
First issues
Important/first appearances
Death of…

Supplementary pop culture items are presented along with the comics including action figures, collectibles, promotional items, and tchotchkes. These items are primarily for visual diversity and to further expound on comic book culture.

Zap! Pow! Bam!: The Art of the Comic Book Cover will be on view from January 18 to April 7. Gallery hours are Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, 9-5 and Thursday, 9-7.

Related upcoming gallery events:

Opening Reception
Thursday, January 18, 5-7 p.m.
Alfred Berkowitz Gallery, ��-Dearborn

Join guest curator Corey Gross and guest speaker Jerzy Drozd for the opening reception for Zap! Pow! Bam!: The Art of the Comic Book Cover. This free event includes complimentary hors d’oeuvres.

Comic Book Making Workshop
Thursday, March 15, 5:30-7 p.m.
Alfred Berkowitz Gallery, ��-Dearborn

Individual instruction by professional comic book artist Matt Feazell for 6^th grade to college level students. Space is limited. Free to the public.

Dearborn Gallery Rally
Saturday, April 7, 2-5 p.m.
Alfred Berkowitz Gallery, ��-Dearborn

Come view the exhibition again on its closing day and see professional comic book artist Dave Acosta demonstrate comic book superhero drawings! Free to the public.

Alfred Berkowitz Gallery

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Mon, 01/08/2018 - 17:38

Zap! Pow! Bam!: The Art of the Comic Book Cover opens Jan. 18 at the Alfred Berkowitz Gallery.

News

New exhibit opens: “Forbidden Art: Illegal Works by Concentration Camp Prisoners”

admin — Mon, 19 Sep 2016 19:10:18 +0000

New exhibit opens: “Forbidden Art: Illegal Works by Concentration Camp Prisoners” admin Mon, 09/19/2016 - 15:10

Our imagination of life in Nazi concentration camps is dominated by darkness, delineated by concepts difficult to fully comprehend: slave labor, extreme hunger, roundups, selection, and overwhelming—and after a while normalized—death. The Forbidden Art exhibition brings viewers a new perspective on concentration camp violence. It speaks to us, from the most authentic source, about the power of the human spirit and the ability to endure in the face of abominable conditions.

The exhibition, which is divided into two themes, features high quality reproductions of 20 artworks, many created under the threat of death. The first theme gives viewers a glimpse of daily camp life, and the remaining pieces invite reflection on the role of art as a mental escape. In this sense, art became a survival strategy. It could be a mental respite, a tool for imagining a different world, a gift of appreciation for human kindness that one experienced in a camp, or a way to build or change one’s social position. Art was also a way to document the present world as a testimony and a challenge to the world that would come after. Some of the work exhibited was produced by amateurs and some was created by accomplished artists who continued haunting their audiences with powerful images after the war.

Most of the works reflect the desperate conditions under which they were created, the lack of supplies and the human need for creative expression to sustain one’s spirit. Our understanding of art is challenged while viewing these illegal works; art ceases to be only a reflection of life, but rather becomes life.

Forbidden Art will be on view from September 18 to December 23 (noon). Gallery hours are Monday-Friday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.

Additional gallery presentations and installations include:

October 13, 6-8 p.m.: "Memory and Memorialization at Auschwitz," presentation by Jonathan Huener, associate professor of history, University of Vermont
October 25, 6-8 p.m.: "Musical Remembrances of Love and Death from Auschwitz-Birkenau," presentation by Barbara Milewski, associate professor of music, Swarthmore College
Visual artist Wojtek Sawa will present his installation piece The Walls Speak in the Mardigian Library. This powerful work illustrates the stories of Polish children placed in subhuman circumstances during World War II. Sawa will teach a student workshop on the gathering, processing, and interpreting of oral histories. (dates TBD)

--- Anna Muller, Assistant Professor of Social Sciences, ��-Dearborn

Alfred Berkowitz Gallery

College of Arts, Sciences, and Letters

Metropolitan Impact

Mon, 09/19/2016 - 19:10

Forbidden Art tells the emotional story of the illegal artwork created by concentration camp prisoners during WWII. The Alfred Berkowitz Gallery is honored to bring this powerful exhibition, organized by the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum and The Polish Mission of the Orchard Lake Schools, to the Dearborn community.

Featured art: Untitled work by František Vizner

admin — Mon, 12 Sep 2016 15:48:12 +0000

Featured art: Untitled work by František Vizner admin Mon, 09/12/2016 - 11:48

Vizner, a world renowned, major Czech glass artist, was trained at the famous glassmaking schools in Nový Bor and Železný Brod before completing his studies at the Academy of Applied Arts in Prague. This work is a beautiful illustration of the artist’s passion for creating harmonious, geometric objects instilled with internal tension. His luminous art demonstrates elegance, simplicity, remarkable craftwork, and a deep admiration for the material. Vizner created his works on his own, without assistants, through a lengthy process of casting, sandblasting, acid-etching, and hand-polishing.

Vizner’s work is represented in public and private collections around the world including the Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Corning Museum of Glass in Corning, N.Y., the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, and the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris. This piece was generously donated to ��-Dearborn by Robert Loeffler.

---Laura Cotton, Art Curator and Gallery Manager

Alfred Berkowitz Gallery

Mon, 09/12/2016 - 15:48

This stunning, untitled, cast glass piece from the University of Michigan-Dearborn’s permanent art collection was created by František Vizner (1936 - 2011).