Foreword

UBC Undergraduate Journal of Art History Issue 1 | 2010

It is with great pleasure that I introduce the inaugural issue of the UBC Undergraduate Journal
of Art History. Te words, the ideas, and the images that constitute this issue are the result
of many hours, many individuals, and perhaps most importantly, much encouragement. Tis
journal started as a simple idea: to create a publishing platform for undergraduate art histori-
cal research at the University of British Columbia. In this, the early moments of reading, I feel
it is important to underscore that this journal is entirely student driven, and it is my sincere
hope that it always will be. I would also like to acknowledge early on the Associate Editors of
this issue, Asia Harvey and Rachael Lew. Together, the three of us realized this frst publica-
tion from beginning to end. I wish to extend my deepest gratitude to you both, and thank you
for your unfaltering commitment to this project.
In order to introduce the four following essays, I am compelled to refect upon a
broad collection of past moments, interactions, conversations, difculties, and successes that
have occurred over the past year. It is, in fact, my own memory of this year-long project that
serves to bind this, the very introduction to you, the reader. Interestingly, the subject of mem-
orythat pervading sense of before, and that cognitive process of recognition, recovery, and
remembranceseems to be a common theme across all four essays featured in this issue. For
students of visual culture, the formation of memory and its role in the production of images
and their reception is undoubtedly a crucial topic to explore. One key aspect of memory is the
translation between past and present, and, of course, vice-versa. Yet how is memory brought to
bear on cultural artifacts such as those that comprise the visual arts? Te following four essays
explore diferent intersections of memory and visuality through various topics: co-optation,
subjectivity, erasure, and materiality. Te process of re-writing an institutionalized history is
the subject of Catherine Fallss discussion of the site-specifc works of Hachivi Edgar Heap of
Birds. In her essay, Falls explores how collective memory is both enabled, and further disabled
through the artists adoption of specifc visual strategies. Te methodology of early modern
painterly practice is traced and questioned in Perrin Grauers essay through an in-depth vi-
sual analysis of Caravaggios Young Sick Bacchus. A close examination of the conventions of
early modern spatial representation, as well as twentieth-century theoretical considerations
of subjectivity, enable Grauer to both complicate and explore the production of the early
modern self. In Jordan Lypkies essay, the relationship between memory and the urban fabric
is pursued. According to Lypkie, two recent public artworks by Stan Douglas and Ken Lum
function to activate within the urban viewer a recollection of local Vancouver erasures even
amidst the blaring efects of a large-scale contemporary cultural manifestation like the 2010
Olympic Winter Games. Te cross-currents between materiality and nostalgia in the context
of 1950s Los Angeles is the focus of Sophia Zweifels essay. She discusses the sensorial and
tactile aspects involved in the creation and reception of Wallace Bermans time-worn artworks.
Folds, layers, and accretions, she argues, were fundamental in viewers embodied encounters
with these objects.
To all four writers, thank you for allowing us to work with you and your ideas, and
for considering so many erasures and additions throughout the editing process. Te ability
to enable undergraduate students to submit work for publishing was an idea that was over-
whelmingly welcomed by the student body of the Department of Art History, Visual Art,
and Teory. What follows in this issue is only a small fraction of the number of submissions
received in January, and I, as well as my fellow editors, wish to thank every single student who
submitted an essay. Te opportunity to work alongside other students and to gain valuable
editing skills was also enthusiastically received by students of all year levels upon a general call
for editors. I would like to recognize the eforts of the additional editors of this issue: Alex
Duncan, Casey Preston, Daniel Ralston, and Carli Vierke. Your comments and suggestions
were extremely valuable throughout the review of submissions, as well as during the numer-
ous rounds of editing over the summer months. Tanks also to Nick Chow, who diligently
considered many aspects of design and formatting in the creation of this issues layout, as well
as that of the journals promotional material.
To the faculty of the department, I am deeply thankful for your constant pull and push
that enables students to develop complex trajectories of thought; your own words and ideas
undoubtedly echo and run deep in those written in this inaugural issue. To our faculty men-
tors, John OBrian and Maureen Ryan, my sincere and heartfelt thanks for your advice, sup-
port, patience, and understanding over the past year. To Geofrey Carr and Michael Windover,
we are indebted to your valuable insights on the editing process, which directly informed the
logistics and strategies of this project.
What is featured in this issue constitutes only a small combination of the multiple
interactions and overlaps between editors, writers, and faculty in the months leading up to
publication. As such, the words and ideas engraved into this inaugural issue of the UBC
Undergraduate Journal of Art History serve not as fnished products, but rather as preliminary
delineations onto a surface which I hope will encourage further undergraduate conversation,
exchange, and opportunity.
Alexandra Turnbull
Editor-in-Chief 2009-2010