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Ouachita hosts “Then I Will See” photography exhibit by Joli Livaudais through Sept. 27

September 17, 2019 - Madison Cresswell

Ouachita Baptist University’s Rosemary Adams Department of Art and Design is hosting an exhibit by Little Rock photographer Joli Livaudais through Friday, Sept. 27, in the Rosemary Gossett Adams Gallery on the second floor of Moses-Provine Hall. Livaudais’ exhibit “Then I Will See” is free and open to the public.

The photographs in her exhibit study nature, beauty and the minutia of Livaudais’ own life in the context of her father’s fixation on studying the patterns of the universe. The images, captured on black and white film with a lens-less pinhole camera and often layered with photographs of her father’s calculations, are hand-colored and printed in the layered, historical process of gum bichromate. This highly involved process yields images that are softly focused and reminiscent of a constructed memory.

"Joli Livaudais' work is such a wonderful mix of exquisite craftsmanship, historical photographic processes and personal content, which all require the artist to be in a state of dichotomy of both reflection and forethought,” said Carey Roberson, associate professor of Art and Design at Ouachita. “Viewers are asked to look through layers of imagery and meanings to reach their own understandings of these dream-like images. It is because of these reasons that this work really benefits our students and art community as both makers and thinkers.”

Livaudais’ photography incorporates her interest in psychology and spirituality while exploring historical photographic processes and contemporary alternative methods, including gum bichromate printing, photo sculpture and installation.

Before establishing herself as a freelance commercial photographer, Livaudais earned her Bachelor of Arts and Master of Science degrees in experimental psychology from the University of Texas at Arlington. She also was awarded a Master of Fine Arts from Louisiana Tech University and was featured as a historical process gum bichromate artist in Christina Anderson’s text on the process, “Gum Printing: A Step-By-Step Manual, Highlighting Artists and Their Creative Practice,” published in 2016.

Livaudais is an assistant professor at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. She will have her artwork displayed in the “Paper Routes – Women to Watch 2020” exhibition at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C.

Rosemary Gossett Adams Gallery hours are 8 a.m.-5 p.m. weekdays, and admission is free. For more information, contact Carey Roberson at [email protected] or (501) 245-4655.