The social observations of Fine Arts graduate student Demetrius Oliver can be symbolized in the form of chocolate frosting and socks.
Oliver's photographs covered the walls of DuBois College House for the grand opening of the Amistad Gallery last night.
All of the photographs featured different parts of Oliver's body and demonstrated themes of race, history, culture, society and class.
"Examining and exaggerating the mundane, my work touches on the absurd where nonsense is taken seriously and the insignificant is elevated," Oliver said.
For example, in "Till," Oliver's face is turned to the side and covered in chocolate frosting.
This photograph comments on the story of Emmett Till, a black child whose body was found in a river in the 1950s, his face destroyed, after he had allegedly whistled at a white woman. The icing is a lighthearted representation of various serious issues from Till's mutilation to the practice of skin bleaching.
"I think they are really dangerous, hard-hitting political commentaries presented in a playful way -- which makes them hit you deeper," Fine Arts graduate student Brian Zegeer said.
According to DuBois Faculty Master and Fine Arts professor Terry Adkins, this is exactly the purpose of the gallery. Adkins said that he hopes the photographs will provide a mecca for discussion and reflection, and gallery visitors agreed that the art's messages provoke thought.
"You are not sure what you are looking at, which forces you to really interpret them," Fine Arts graduate student Ernel Martinez said.
What makes the photographs conceptually abstract is Oliver's use of objects that contrast with their main message.
By "combining different materials that are at times contradictory, I seek to elicit double meanings and metaphors that allow for multiple viewpoints," Oliver said.
Entitled "Dusk and Dawn," the exhibit gets its name from W.E.B. DuBois' book Dusk and Dawn. Like DuBois, who used his life as a frame of reference for the discussion of race, Oliver uses visual images of his body in a similar fashion.
According to Fine Arts graduate student Mary Blanchard, Oliver started his portfolio with drawings of his hands and feet and then moved on to photography.
Approximately 40 students and community members attended the opening, not only to see Oliver's artwork but also to hear DuBois House Dean Patricia Williams passionately recite a new poem written especially for the occasion.
Oliver's work was for sale, with part of the proceeds going toward the upkeep of the gallery.
