​Olga Ivashkevich, PhD

Summer 2012

The video workshop Occupying Anonymous was conducted in collaboration with my former art education colleague Courtnie Wolfgang. It addressed the issue of visibility for the population of girls who are required to remain anonymous and conceal their identity in their artwork. Instead of masking their faces or entire bodies in their videos (like previous groups of girls have done), our participants dressed as fictional personas to perform their poems on camera. The issues raised in their performances included drug addition, unhealthy relationships, and family struggles. The girls directed, filmed, performed, and edited their own videos in small groups. We are grateful to graduate student volunteers Cortney Piper, Ruzanna Carter and Michelle McDonald for their help.

 

This project, along with the earlier projects from 2010-2011, was on display at the McKissick museum on USC campus from January 14 to April 30, 2013.