Reception & Lecture

Description

FIND YOUR FOLKLIFE: WE ARE THE FOLK, ALL OF US
Reception and Lecture
Wednesday, July 27, 2022
4:30 – 5:30pm reception, view hallway gallery and permanent galleries
5:30 – 6:30pm lecture, Rebecca Snetselaar, exhibit curator and NAC Folklorist

Come enjoy a mini-reception to view the lenticular art and enjoy refreshments before our guest speaker, Rebecca Snetselaar will give a talk about creating this unique exhibition.

The exhibit features 22 photographs of Nevadans dressed to represent different cultural identities, each paired with a photograph of the same person in “everyday” dress as they might appear at home, work, or enjoying recreational activities. These photo pairs have been combined on “lenticular two-flip” panels so that as the viewer approaches, they see just one of the photos. As they begin to pass by the panel, it “flips” to the other image as though by magic. The effect is created by interleaving the images on narrow strips that are refracted through an overlying lens to create the startling “two-flip” effect. Each image pair is accompanied by a statement in the model’s own words that speaks to some aspect of cultural community or identity.

“This exhibit is a fun way to think about who we are as Nevadans in the 21st century,” exhibit curator Rebecca Snetselaar, who also photographed the models for the exhibit, said. “Cultural identity is complicated. Most of us identify with more than one cultural community and we may express different aspects of that depending on where we are or who we are with at any given time.”

Folklife, folk arts, and folklore all spring from cultural identity, which comes from belonging to a social group. Family heritage — national or ethnic — often informs a person’s sense of self. Cultural identity also may derive from language, gender, religion, age, occupation, and sense of place. Culture is something we share with others in a social group. It’s our folklife: our common values and beliefs, the creative ways we express identity in a group, the knowledge we share, the objects that hold significance and meaning, the activities we engage in as a community.

What is lenticular art?

A lenticular is a unique variety of visual art. The image that you see changes, depending on the angle from which it is viewed. For a “two-flip” lenticular image, two separate images are cut and laid down in alternating narrow strips, then laminated to a clear plastic lens to create the visual effect. As you walk past the panel you see first one image, then the other. It’s a fun and engaging way to juxtapose two contrasting images. The two images are chosen, edited, sized and cropped to complement each other.

Nevada Arts Council’s Folklife Friends and Neighbors Initiative is about you—your family, your neighbors, your friends, your community. It’s also about us—who we are as Nevadans navigating the challenges and opportunities of the 21^st Century.

Folklife, folk arts, and folklore all spring from cultural identity, which comes from belonging to a social group. Family heritage—national or ethnic—often informs a person’s sense of self. Cultural identity may also derive from language, gender, religion, age, occupation, and locality or sense of place. Folk traditions are typically shared in informal ways and passed from one person to another by word of mouth, imitation, or observation.

Culture is something we share with others in a social group. It’s our folklife: our common values and beliefs, the creative ways we express identity in a group, the knowledge we share, the objects that hold significance and meaning, the activities we engage in as a community. Most people belong to many different “folk groups” or communities. Every person is unique. Depending on where you are and who you are with, you may express different aspects of your own cultural identity.  Join us in a quest to “find your folklife”—and share on social media with the hashtag #NVFolkFAN.

Over the past three years we have been photographing Nevadans—your friends and neighbors—as they appear when representing cultural identity and as they appear in their everyday lives at home, on the job, or enjoying recreational activities. That work is represented in the 22 “lenticular two-flip” panels of this exhibition.

https://www.lasvegasnvmuseum.org/online-exhibits/find-your-folklife/

This exhibition will be on display beginning June 8, 2022 through September 2, 2022.