ARTEVENT: Amze Emmons artist talk

Interrupted Lives: Human Migration in War and Peace

Amze Emmons gave a talk about art, migration, and politics. When Dr Cain introduced Amze Emmons, he stated that there is a "mutual attraction" between art and political science, which was interesting to me because I am an art history and political science double major. I really enjoyed Amze Emmons' talk. He cited his main interests dealing with migration to be place and space, displacement by choice or force, tourist vs. refugee, things we carry and the things we leave behind, the politics of architecture, and images in visual culture. He took pictures of spaces that didn't really work or were odd to him. He also discussed the idea of global appropriation and how some things lose their meaning when put in a new context.

I was attracted to his work. Amze Emmons creates scenes of displacement without any people in them, which leaves you feeling sort of haunted when you're looking at it. His use of color and line were notable to me. Also, in the backgrounds of many of his pictures (an the one I have here), what's interesting is what isn't there rather than what is. For instance, the skylines are not colored in, but they're what you notice. Similarly, you notice the lack of human presence almost right away. Art is really successful when you are still thinking about it days later.