Arts, Etc.Photography

An exploration into the human spirit

Rhona Shand's exhibit "Liminal Significance" is in the Carlson Gallery until Nov. 21. Shand uses photography and the computer to "reconceptualize the human figure" and identify her message. Her work is an exploration of the "how long the human spirit [can] function without balance, understanding, or acceptance of self." / photo by Adam Omernik
Rhona Shand’s exhibit “Liminal Significance” is in the Carlson Gallery until Nov. 21. Shand uses photography and the computer to “reconceptualize the human figure” and identify her message. Her work is an exploration of the “how long the human spirit [can] function without balance, understanding, or acceptance of self.” / photo by Adam Omernik
by Jessica Rodriguez
Staff Writer

Rhona Shand, artist and creator of “Liminal Significance,” offers a visual exploration into the complexity of the human spirit through her photographs on display through Nov. 21 in the Carlson Gallery.

Shand’s photographic images have transparent figures that make you think about the realty of their presence.

The photographs give one the feeling that there are several photos intertwined.

“How we view ourselves is often defined by the standards set by our family and friends and by our environment,” Shand said. “The loss or alteration of any of these things often forces a charge in the status or position from where one gains one identity.”

The word liminal refers to being consciously aware of something that cannot be experienced or felt. This one word can express in detail the meaning of the images in the Carlson Gallery at Miller Hall.

Shand said that this collection of pictures formed from another exhibit titled “Emergent Evolution.”

“I have been working on ‘Emergent Evolution’ for three years,” Shand said. “The concept and intent of the pieces have greatly changed over the past years, and I felt that they have moved beyond my past exhibit, hence the name change ‘Liminal Significance.'”

It can take anywhere from three to four months for Shand to resolve an image, and she works on multiple pieces at one time. She feels that each picture expresses her as an artist.

“The exhibition is a visual diary or journal, and I use the pieces to express problems, emotions and issues that involve me,” Shand said. “The work in the exhibit shows an example of who I am as a person, and it is a melting pot of different environments, art media, levels of communication and choices.”

When asked which piece is her favorite in this exhibit, she says that she cannot say. She said that each piece deals with completely different concepts and raises several different questions for her.

“I see strengths, successes, failures and weakness in all the work,” Shand said. “Images that I have evolved more as an artist are not always the most successful work, but are the most important to me.”

The “Swing Set” piece is the one that she feels illustrates her most; it reveals her concept of growth.

Her images will touch audiences in a way that many cannot. They have an abstract physical feel that makes one think about the meaning of the picture.

Gary Colby, photography department chairman, said that his favorite photo is the “Swing Set,” because it is so opaque that one has a hard time understanding it without knowledge of the artist.

He also knows it is still a work in progress, which shows that there will be more results of the same complex picture.

“‘Liminal Significance’ offers an opportunity to explore a profound body of work on many different levels; philosophical, technical and aesthetic, and the complexity is the best you can hope for,” Colby said.

Shand hopes that this current exhibit will help students at ULV by realizing that being an artist requires dedication and a good work ethic.

She feels that as an artist, people tend to put limits on themselves, and that photography is only what one makes of it.

“Learn the techniques and craft so that you are intelligent when you break a rule and limits,” Shand said. “Photography can be as much about looking inside you as it is looking outside and around you.”

Shand is an assistant professor of photography at Pittsburgh State University in Kansas, and has received many awards, including the 1999-2000 Malcolm Propes Fellowship from the Savannah College of Art and Design in Georgia.

She has a master’s degree in Photography from Savannah College of Art and Design.

Shand currently has three other works on display in Polaroid’s International Magazine, Denison University in Ohio, and Elmira College in New York.

Shand’s work has many levels of complexity that one does not find in many art works. Each piece represents different emotions and concepts that can be universally acknowledged.

Jessica Rodriguez
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