THC: Why?

JSW: This is a hard question. It’s a good way to involve a lot of different people that might not necessarily participate, and it’s interesting to bring everyone together in that sense. The show also challenges what you would usually want to look at. Especially when it’s abstract art, not immediately recognizable; it’s definitely easier to recognize skill when looking at life-size portraits, for example, but it’s a much tougher call when you’re looking at something without feeling confident that you know exactly what you’re looking at.

THC: Do you think that anyone—artist or amateur—could go to the show and appreciate it equally?

JSW: There are definitely problems with making art approachable, especially with contemporary and conceptual art like STASH. It helps to have a...base [of] knowledge, a reference to what you’re looking at and what has previously been done in the area. So I think it’s harder for someone who’s completely unfamiliar to look at the exhibit with an open mind, and I think it’s a more unusual show for Harvard.

J. Cody Carvel ’03

Afro-American Studies and Social Studies

THC: What did you choose as your “visually interesting” object?

CC: I had these three rocks in my office at The Advocate, and one day I just glued this picture that I had ripped out of a magazine onto them. I mean, I was just playing with glue.

THC: What was the picture of?

CC: Actually, I’m pretty sure it was taken from a porno magazine, but you can only see the person’s face. When I was deciding what to pick, I just thought, “this is weird, you can have it.”