Artist Talk: Olivia Johnston and Kathryn Desplanque
Join ÐÓ°ÉÔ´´ graduates Olivia Johnston and Kathryn Desplanque on Thursday, December 2nd for a talk entitled Embodying Saintly Gestures. Photographer and art historian Olivia Johnston’s series of saints images makes use of the visual language applied to those most revered in Christian devotional objects of centuries past to contemporary portraiture. In this instalment of the Articles of Faith talk series, Johnston will speak with one of her models for the series, art historian Kathryn Desplanque, about her experience sitting for the artist and performing the gestures of a saint. The talk will explore the development of this series of photographs, how the familiar gestures found in saint portraits in northern art history endures as a powerful symbol of holiness, and how sitting as a model for this series has informed the way Desplanque thinks about teaching artists and art history. The event is free to attend and will be broadcast on Facebook Live and Vimeo.