Curatorial intern Sam Nehila uses collage to create abstracted forms and explore the trans experience of engaging with the museum’s collection of male nude bodies.
A student dismantles the outdated terminology and practice of “master copies” by constructing a series of copies that works to bolster underrepresented artists and subvert the pervasive presence of white males in the Western art canon.
The handmade object has a tendency to prompt memories from the craftsperson who made it. In this reflection on an embroidered purse from the 1970s, Ariel Wills and Kate Irvin are joined by maker Christina Bevilacqua for a dynamic conversation that demonstrates the narrative qualities embodied in material culture.
A student in a RISD course on pan-African aesthetics contemplates a vinyl record pictured in a Sanlé Sory photograph in the collection, and imagines the songs it contains.
Digital Initiatives intern Ariel Hirschhorn explores the “Maker” field in the museum’s database to examine the collection from a programmer’s perspective
In 1971, a group of radical students in Providence produced stirring silkscreen posters. Their images contributed to the vibrant visual culture of antiwar protest.
Curatorial intern Grace Xiao reflects on viewing artwork that embraces instability, disruption, and restlessness, making room for open interpretations in the gallery.
A summer conservation intern’s investigation into the uses of infrared photography in recording Samoan siapo and the significance of new visual information gained.
A summer intern meditates on the medium of murals and how they appear on RISD’s walls, using Photoshop to understand what is lost when seeing incomplete works out of context.
This rare example of Gorham's "Mythologique" flatware service was purposefully left unfinished as they are samples, combining elaborate hand-worked detail with mechanized brute force.
In earlier decades, retouching (or “inpainting”) using reversible painting materials would have been employed where compositional elements were missing.