Lux et Veritas
Yale University School of Art
Graphic Design Department
2009 MFA Thesis Show

So, this is a condensed, simplified version of our thesis show at the Yale School of Art. The original idea was to create an exhibition primarily of material objects that contained none of those objects—videos of graphic design rather than the real thing. This decision was reached after many prolonged meetings, protracted conversations, and near stalemates among the sixteen of us as we sought a means of collectively presenting our work. We wondered how to show our print, interactive, motion, and environmental pieces in a gallery setting. It seemed disappointing to heave an armload of objects onto a table and just leave them there, so disembodied from the world for which they were designed. Finally, we agreed to forgo the objects, turn off the lights, and present our work immaterially, as a series of looping video reels, immersing visitors in an ever-changing spatial collage of our efforts.

Faced with the opportunity to take the show from New Haven to a wider, international audience, and the attendant realities of displaying the work within small spaces, we assembled an edited selection of the videos designed to use only one projector (a re-presentation of a show about re-representation, if you like). This necessarily shifts the balance away from the videos and toward our thesis books, the only material objects in the original exhibition. This publication presents our work both collectively and individually, reflecting the show as you see it here in this new form.

Jensen Barnes
Rachel Berger
Yeju Choi
Neil Donnelly
Ian Jamieson
Hyoun Youl Joe
E Roon Kang
Hilla Katki
Tara Kelton
Wolasi Konu
Alexander Moulitsas
James Muspratt
Daniella Spinat
Yasser Suratman
Mary Voorhees
Ryan Waller

Founded in 1701, Yale University is located in New Haven, Connecticut. Its School of Art, created in 1869, was the first connected with an institution of higher learning in the US. Since 1869, critics within the Graphic Design program have included Paul Rand, Alexey Brodovitch, Herbert Matter, and Bradbury Thompson. The 2009 Graphic Design MFA candidates’ critics included Michael Bierut, Julia Born, Matthew Carter, Glen Cummings, Linda van Deursen, Paul Elliman, Tobias Frere-Jones, Jessica Helfand, Karel Martens, Dan Michaelson, Michael Rock, Susan Sellers, Daniel van der Velden, Roel Wouters, and the Graphic Design Department’s Director Sheila Levrant de Bretteville.


Thursday, December 3, 2009
20:00 New Art Coffee, 31, V. Orbeliani Str., Ledentu le Phare, by Zdanevich / Lux et Veritas, Yale University School of Art Graphic Design Department – 2009 MFA Thesis Show. Concert by Kung Fu Junkie (Tbilisi)