Body Politic by Christa Carleton and Tonja Torgerson

Dates and Times for this Past Event

• Saturday, Oct 29, 2022  11 a.m. - 4 p.m.
• Friday, Oct 28, 2022  11 a.m. - 4 p.m.
• Thursday, Oct 27, 2022  11 a.m. - 4 p.m.
• Wednesday, Oct 26, 2022  1 - 8 p.m.
• Tuesday, Oct 25, 2022  11 a.m. - 4 p.m.
• Saturday, Oct 22, 2022  11 a.m. - 4 p.m.
• Friday, Oct 21, 2022  11 a.m. - 4 p.m.
• Thursday, Oct 20, 2022  11 a.m. - 4 p.m.
• Wednesday, Oct 19, 2022  1 - 8 p.m.
• Tuesday, Oct 18, 2022  11 a.m. - 4 p.m.
• Saturday, Oct 15, 2022  11 a.m. - 4 p.m.
• Friday, Oct 14, 2022  11 a.m. - 4 p.m.

Location

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Details

Institute for Human Science and Culture

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Bodies have always been a point of control, debate, and controversy within our society. Body Politic presents a series of collaborative prints by Christa Carleton and Tonja Torgerson, all focused on political themes associated with the figurative nude. Using letterpress, screenprint, and woodcut, these prints reference broadsides and use the impact of print-media to destabilize current ideas on gender roles and our bodies. "Our prints resist outdated mindsets about performing femininity and question widespread notions about the role and standing of female-expressing people," say the artists. "With our collaborative project Body Politic, we contribute our perspectives to a vast commentary set forth by our predecessors in intersectional feminism, and raise our voices in support of inclusive change."

Mailing these prints back and forth from Indiana to Montana, the artists are responding to one another and these topics layer by layer, building a dialogue across the country and within each print. Stark, nude figures are combined with bold, aggressive text that challenge the expectations which are put upon them.

Body Politic is being presented at the Cummings Center as part of the 2022 Mid America Print Council Biennial Conference, hosted by Kent State University. This year's conference theme, "The Power of Print Resistance, Revolution, & Resilience," explores the cultural relevance of printmaking. The mission of this conference is to leverage print media's historical role in multiples, distributed art, protest art, and popular culture, to generate an event that is timely and broadly relevant both culturally and artistically.

About the Artists:

Tonja Torgerson received her BFA from the University of Minnesota and MFA in Printmaking at Syracuse University. Her artwork is regularly exhibited nationally and internationally and is in several museum collections, such as the Weisman Art Museum and the Minnesota Museum of American Art. Torgerson has been a resident artist at West Virginia Wesleyan College, the Lawrence Arts Center, Fogo Island, Artist Image Resource of Pittsburgh, and New York Mills, Minnesota. She is a Lecturer of Printmaking at Indiana University.

 

Christa Carleton received her BFA from Western Colorado University and MFA in Printmaking from Montana State University. Christa works regularly in screenprint and woodcut, but letterpress is where her loyalties lie. She is currently a screenprint technician at a textile printing business in Missoula, MT and pursues her artistic practice on top of her full time job. While being an artist is a huge part of her identity it isn't her only love. Christa enjoys cooking vegetarian food, gardening, hiking with her dog, and listening to podcasts.