Livaudais photo exhibit featured at Ouachita Baptist
Joli Livaudais
The photographs of University of Arkansas at Little Rock art professor Joli Livaudais will be on display at Quachita Baptist University until Friday, Sept. 27.
Ouachita Baptist University is hosting an exhibit, “Then I Will See,” by Livaudais in the Rosemary Gossett Adams Gallery on the second floor of Moses-Provine Hall. Livaudais鈥� exhibit is free and open to the public. Rosemary Gossett Adams Gallery hours are 8 a.m.-5 p.m. weekdays.
The photographs in her exhibit study nature, beauty, and the minutia of Livaudais鈥� own life in the context of her father鈥檚 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鈥檚 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.
鈥淛oli Livaudais鈥� 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,鈥� said Carey Roberson, associate professor of visual arts at Ouachita. 鈥淰iewers 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.鈥�
Livaudais鈥� 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鈥檚 text on the process, 鈥淕um Printing: A Step-By-Step Manual, Highlighting Artists and Their Creative Practice,鈥� published in 2016.
