Beth Consetta Rubel
Higher Learning: Educational Toys
April to June 2017
Exhibit Summary:
A series of colored pencil portraits features influential African-Americans including Hattie McDaniel, Prince, Snoop Dogg, and President Obama. Each of the portraits is made on a brown paper bag, suggesting the fragility of paper, the temporality of trash, and the mundanity of low-end consumerism.
Featuring innovative and satirical renditions of trending topics-from the racial passing of Rachel Dolezal to the ongoing protests at Standing Rock-Rubel explores the intersection of pop culture and identity, questioning the role of mass media in our collective education.
How do nightly news and social media influence or interfere with our learning? What is it that we have gained and, more importantly, what have we missed? After a trending story has passed in the public conversation, has it really died in our private memory?
Rubel encourages visitors to play with the familiar toys of youth in a sensorial way to think about how people are transformed into spectacles that linger, spread, polarize, and distract.
Exhibit Review:
Beth Consetta Rubel
A visual artist who lives and works between Austin, Texas, and Sacramento, California. Her work discusses intersections between race and pop culture while using historical and sometimes satirical references to encourage conversation, awareness, and activism.
