Illumination 2011 spreads

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Annelise Kelly!e Warning

(above) oil, encaustic paper

canvas, collage

Amanda BreitenbachHome

acrylic and latex on canvas

on the coverMy current painting practice stems

from translating urban and rural landscapes into grids and shapes. !is visual is derived from the patterns revealed when surveying land from an aerial view. I have simplified this grid into patterns and introduced vibrant col-or to further deviate from the source of natu-ral landscape. As subject matter for my work, I decided to combine these land patterns with my interest in birds. My challenge has been to find a way to make them relevant to one another both conceptually and aesthetically.


editor’s page 1

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Welcome to the Spring 2011 issue of Illumination: !e Undergraduate Journal of Humanities! I am extremely proud to introduce another issue. What you are holding in your hands is the product of many months of hard work from our dedicated sta", who, through their passion for the humanities, have brought you the best selection of art, poetry and prose that this school has to o"er.

!is semester, Illumination is featuring one of the school’s most talented artists: Anthony Moore. As an Iraqi war veteran, his artwork reflects both his experiences there, and the experience of returning to the United States. With such a hot-button topic in today’s political atmosphere, I am excited to display Anthony’s unique viewpoint that he displays with such raw talent. In addition, his accompanying essay explains in depth his experiences and also the methods and reasoning behind his artwork. It is truly a moving piece, and I would like to extend my thanks to Anthony for all of his hard work.

On behalf of the entire sta", I would like to present this issue for your viewing pleasure! But, before you turn the page, allow me to extend a special thanks to Sarah Mathews, the Director of the Publications Committee, for the endless passion that she continuously pours into all of the magazines.

And, on a personal note, I would like to thank my mom and dad for their love and support and my fiancé, Dexter, for always being my sounding board. Finally, I would like to thank my aunt Cathy and uncle David and my grandma Carol and grandpa Joe for twenty-three years of endless encouragement!

Salve!

Carolyn Lucas

!e mission of Illumination is to provide the undergraduate student body of the University of Wisconsin-Madison a chance to publish work in the fields of the humanities and to display some of the school’s best talent. As an approachable portal for creative writing, art, and scholarly essays, the diverse content in the journal will be a valuable addition to the intellectual community of the University and all of the people it a"ects.

Letter from the Editor

Mission

Editor-in-ChiefCarolyn Lucas

Assistant Editor-in-ChiefBrit Estrada

Art EditorOlivia Baldwin

Art Reviewersxx

Head Copy EditorCailly Morris

Copy EditorsBrit EstradaKiran Gosal

Essays EditorKatie Witham

Essay Reviwersxx

Layout EditorGayle Cottrill

Layout AssistantsSher Minn ChongMarine Hamersma

Poetry EditorChloe Clark

Poetry Reviewersxxx

Prose EditorAnna

Prose Reviewersxxx

Publicity DirectorCarly Ettinger

Finances DirectorKate Neuens

WUD Publications Committee DirectorSarah Mathews

Staff

Special Thanks


WI feature

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Front Lines

Anthony Moore

Most of the weapon sound e!ects in movies are pretty good. Bullets flying past make a sound that is surprisingly similar to the laser gun sound from the GI Joe cartoon series. "ere are common inaccuracies, such as mortars don’t whistle when they come in–they’re quiet then

they explode. However, I’ve never heard anything that remotely resembles an RPG flying overhead. It’s something like a cross between the roar of a jet and an eagle’s cry. It is the most terrifying sound I have ever heard.

I enlisted in the Army Reserves while I was still in high school in order to pay for college. I graduated from Madison East High School in June of 2003. In September, I was in basic training and by November I was in advanced individual training to be an electrician. I graduated my initial training in January and attended my first classes at UW-Madison a few days later.

I completed the spring semester, but during the summer I was transferred from my unit in Pewaukee to a unit in Detroit. I resumed classes in fall despite the imminent threat of mobilization, but halfway through the semester I was called to active duty. I spent several months in the mobilization process in Indiana, and left the US December 25th of 2004. I arrived in Kuwait a day later, and Iraq several weeks after that. I got back to Wisconsin on December 8th of 2005, my 21st birthday.

"ere are many stories from soldiers about how Iraqis really wanted the American presence. "ere are also many pictures of soldiers staying in palaces and swimming in giant pools. I can only speak to my own experiences, but that wasn’t my reality in Ramadi, the western tip of the Sunni triangle. Our outpost, Camp Corregidor, was attacked almost daily. I slept on a broken cot on a dirt floor. We shit in 50-gallon drums filled with diesel so we could burn it, because it was too dangerous to employ sanitation services. Female soldiers were not even allowed to come to Camp Corregidor. Madison had become the Shire to me, but it was actually a di#cult transition when I got back, not some fantasy.

I resumed classes in the spring of 2006. My original plan had been to go to school to be a physics teacher. It was a way for me to pursue physics; a subject I had really enjoyed in high school. Another high school class really enjoyed was art metals, which I took on the chance recommendation from one of the shop teachers. In addition to some physics classes, I enrolled in Art Metals I, taught by Kim Cridler.

I was struggling to adjust to college life. My coursework definitely su!ered from my trouble sleeping, a common problem for soldiers returning from deployments. Kim was very understanding and put forth the extra e!ort that I needed, and I thrived. I don’t know if I would have continued school if I hadn’t taken that class. I took advanced metals the following semester, and kept taking metals classes. Eventually I switched from physics education to art.

I enjoy making things in metal. While I was deployed, I would sometimes try to fashion something out of spare wire or put a pattern on a spent casing. I never had the intention of making art about my

to Fine Art


WI feature

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Medal of Honor Seriesgunpowder burned on paper

experiences in Iraq, or war in general. In fact, I don’t even like to introduce my military past until I know someone. When people learn you’re a veteran they make a lot of immediate assumptions, which is true of any group: gay, Hmong, feminist, Jewish, or tall—it’s human nature—but I don’t like it. Additionally, I think there’s a national shame regarding how veterans were treated during the Vietnam era, and people are subconsciously grappling with that shared history. "e Germans have a word for that—vergangenheitsbewaeltigung. "is vergangenheitsbewaeltigung brings a level of psychological intensity to the encounter when people hear I’m a veteran, and I find that terrifically uncomfortable.

"e Medal of Honor Series is a series of four portraits depicting the four soldiers from Operation Iraqi Freedom who were awarded the Medal of Honor. "e image is rendered in gunpowder on paper made from a set of my desert uniforms I wore while I was deployed to Iraq. "e gunpowder is applied using a stenciling technique I learned in an enameling class with Lisa Gralnick. I don’t think of the Medal of Honor Series as drawings or prints, but rather as grisaille enamels done on paper. Enameling is a process of applying powdered glass to metal and then fusing it at very high temperatures. Once you sift the enamel onto a piece of metal, it can be easily wiped o!. It is only until you put the piece into a kiln that it vitrifies and fuses to the metal. Similarly, the gunpowder can’t be removed from the paper until it is lit, at which point the image will be indelibly burned into the paper. I don’t think the portraits are complete until they’re burned, but I prefer to present them unfinished. "ere is a potential there, a play between the evanescent and the permanent.

Valor, Part II is the image of a nude male soldier rendered in several layers of gunpowder on a substrate of cotton osnaburg. Valor, Part II used the same stenciling technique used to create the Medal of Honor series, but on a larger and more complex scale. "e powder is then ignited, burning in the image. "ere were five stencils and

Jason Dunham

Michael Monsoor

Anthony Moore


WI feature

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Ross McGinnis

Paul Smith

three di!erent types of gunpowder use to create a gray scale. Slow-burning powders result in a dark char, while the faster ones just singe the fabric. Valor, Part II makes a fairly direct reference to the Shroud of Turin. It also makes more oblique references to tapestries, championship banners, and even the liminal properties of a curtain.

I am interested in awards of all kinds, specifically military medals, and even more specifically, the Medal of Honor. It’s a pretty obvious place to start to explore for someone interested in art metals simply because of the metal/medal connection, but military awards can be pretty controversial as well. For instance, I received the Combat Action Badge (CAB), which is a really contentious award. "e CAB was originally meant to be a non-infantry replacement for the Combat Infantryman Badge (CIB), which only infantry could receive. "e CAB was awarded for many actions that would not have earned a CIB, and the CAB quickly became a matter of contempt among the infantry. I would say nine out of 10 CABs are undeserved, and I would include my own in that number. My CAB would not have been awarded, except for the fact that during the action there was an o#cer present who wanted one. He was able to push through the paperwork for all those present. It may seem like a small issue that only concerns the egocentric, but there are large ramifications to awards. "e CAB awards promotion points, as do almost all medals, so it has a direct impact on someone’s military career. "e CAB is one of the few items other than rank that can be worn on a duty uniform, so it has a significant impact on how soldiers are perceived. It also serves to cement and legitimize something as ephemeral as an event and some text. "at insignificant little piece of stamped metal is a really potent signifier, but there is a huge chasm of abstraction between that piece of metal and the action that it is meant to represent. "at abstraction of the soldier is exemplified by Marsden Hartley’s series of portraits of German o#cers. "e paintings contain no features at all, just the symbols worn on the o#cers’ uniform.

Before anyone looks at your face, they look at your chest to see your rank, to the left to see your name, and to the right to see if you have badges or a combat patch. "e same thing happens when a

Front Lines to Fine Art


WI feature

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Anthony Moore

Valor, Part IIgunpowder,

3.5’ x 7.5’

soldier is in a dress uniform, but it’s an even more extreme example. "e soldier’s entire career is supposedly displayed on his chest, somehow summed up by random patches of color that signify awards, citations, and actions.

"e Gunpowder Broaches continue this discussion. "rough the material, smashed bullets, the broaches make a statement about the gap between the ribbons on a uniform and the actions they represent. When viewed alone, they seem like a mark of destruction, but when worn, they make a statement of impenetrability. "e pins are not sculpture; they’re very much jewelry. "ey can’t fully function on display. "e act of pinning a Gunpowder Broach to oneself, literally broaching a protective garment, emphasizes the conflict between destruction and invulnerability

present in the pin. "e pin’s piercing is a psychologically charged gesture that serves as a memento mori. Every single piece of jewelry addresses three critical terms: Preciousness, beauty, and the body. Gunpowder Broaches deal with preciousness by subverting it, beauty by presenting an alternative view, and the body as a site of both violence and honor.

Despite all the significance that can be attributed to things like gunpowder and bullets, I am just as interested in the phenomenological aspect of the materials as the iconographical. I don’t like to think about how things appear, but rather, how I experience them. "e way gunpowder behaves when someone is encountering it in a room is substantially more important to me than the pattern into which it happens to be arranged. "is desire for material experience comes from metalsmithing. Every alloy has its own characteristics in terms of conductivity, ductility, resiliency, shine, and many other categories too numerous to list. It is necessary to know how each metal behaves and pick the correct material for the correct job, as well as the correct process for the correct material. I want to understand how something bends, sticks, smells, and feels while I work

with it, and I hope to communicate some of that through my work.

In addition to demanding technical knowledge, metal is also burdened with heavy material connotations. Because gold is so infinitely recyclable, there is a literal physical history present in gold. Whatever jewelry someone has, there are bound to be atoms from the ransom of Montezuma, ancient Greek coinage, and old electronics. Yet, the jewelry industry is also saturated with half-truths, misconceptions, and outright fiction.

Diamonds are very common. "ey’re not very “precious,” and can even be synthesized in labs. Even if you can’t get a real diamond, cubic zirconia, moissonite, and clear sapphire are all very good substitutes. It’s di#cult to tell that to someone and


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Front Lines to Fine Art

then tell them that they should pay you thousands of dollars for a sparkly pebble. Diamond Ring 5X make a critical statement about the nature of the diamond industry. No one buys diamonds; they buy the idea of a diamond. Jewelers are quick to show a stone under magnification and a special set of lights. No one will ever view the stone in those circumstances. Diamond Ring 5X highlights the absurdity of magnification and asks more general questions about how people will view diamonds in relationship to the body.

White gold is another material fraught with crisis. Most people who say they like white gold really like rhodium, a white metal used to plate almost all white gold jewelry, because white gold is really an unpleasant o!-white. Gold purity is measured in karats, as a fraction of 24. 24 kt is pure, 12 kt is half, so Zero Karat White Gold Ring has no gold in it. It is created from casting the master alloy, the alloy added to pure gold, into an ingot. "at ingot is then forged, drawn, formed, soldered, polished, and stamped 0K. As gold has become more expensive, lower and lower karats are increasingly popular. 10 kt jewelry is fairly common; that’s 58% some other material. "at means the majority of what is being called gold is not, atomically speaking, gold. It’s also not yellow or soft, which

are essential characteristics of gold. Zero Karat White Gold Ring takes the material characteristics of white gold to the extreme, and questions the rift between gold as a material and gold as a name.

"e rift between signifier and signified is important to everything I make and it is a rift that is fundamental to contemporary art. All my pieces explore that rift, but more importantly, they are explorations of material. Material can engage an audience in a deep, powerful, or subtle dialogue. Materials matter.

h

Diamond Ring 5x(right) sterling silver, diamond, lens, 4” x 1”

Zero Karat White Gold Ring(left) white gold master alloy, 3/4”

Gunpowder Broacheslead, copper, sterling silver, steel


32 final thoughts

illumination 2011

Final ThoughtsBehind every great issue of Illumination is an incredible support system that usually tends to go

unnoticed. "e Publications Committee, or PubCom, is that support system. Illumination is one of several incredible magazines that work with PubCom – "e Journal of Undergraduate

International Studies, or JUIS; Emmie, the incredibly creative music magazine; and Souvenirs, a collection of art and prose concerning study abroad; and the brand new MODA, Madison’s first style magazine – in addition to groups like Working Title, a student-run workshop to critique student’s work.

For the first time, also, the Publications Committee is expanding into events. It began with the incredibly successful Yule Ball, featuring many Harry Potter-themed events including ballroom dancing and themed food. "e events continued with LitFest, a week long festival in April with features like poet laureate Billy Collins, a celebration of Madison’s local bookstores, and a panel of experts that can fill you in on how to get published.

"e Publications Committee relies on the creative ideas of its members. We work together to brainstorm ideas for events, critique the journals, and even plan events like a members-only Chicago trip! If you are interested, head over to http://www.union.wisc.edu/wud/publications-about.htm and see how you can get involved with the many opportunities that PubCom has to o!er!

Your work could be in the NEXT issue of Illumination!

Go to www.illuminationjournal.com

to find out how to submit your work or get involved.

Or email [email protected]

with any comments, inquiries or just to keep in touch!


Amanda BreitenbachSurvey

acrylic on masonite panel

Amanda BreitenbachUntitled

arylic and latex on canvas


illumination

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illumination illumination

il lum in ateto enlighten

intellectually; to make illustrious or

resplendent


Illumination 2011 spreads

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