Ithaca College

Join us for a compelling look behind the scenes of our current exhibition, HUMAN NATURE, where faculty artist Carla Stetson will share her research and process in preparation for creating her work on display at the Handwerker Gallery.

December 6, 6 p.m.: Artist Talk

Handwerker Gallery 

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Human Nature: Carla Stetson

on view October 31–December 16, 2018  

Animals serve a multiplicity of functions for humans: pets, food, clothing, medicine, proxies, aides, symbols of power or industriousness, and more.  Their role in relation to humans, who are, after all, animals themselves, is a murky and highly contested ground.  While we revere some animals, we loathe and fear others, and pay no attention to many. Carla Stetson’s recent work raises questions about animal and human interdependency, how we imagine animals to be, and what they mean to us as we consider the natural/cultural/societal issues of the world we share. Uncanny compositions depict wild animals within domestic interior spaces where they do not belong: nesting within a braided rug, stuck under an overstuffed chair, flitting against floral wallpaper. Defying standard human convention of barricading wild things outside our homes, here they are invited inside and fed from the table. Narratives arise, psychoses are explored, and power struggles ensue in the border ecology of Stetson’s imaginative dreamscape.   

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All exhibitions and events at the Handwerker Gallery are free and open to the public.  The Handwerker Gallery is open Monday, Wednesday, & Friday from 10am-6pm; Thursdays from 10am-9pm; and Saturday & Sunday from 12pm-5pm. Individuals with disabilities requiring accommodations should contact Mara Baldwin at mbaldwin@ithaca.edu or (607) 274-3548. We ask that requests for accommodations be made as soon as possible.

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