Graduate Student Speaker Series Continues With Acadia Kandora

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Acadia Kandora

Join the University Libraries and Graduate School and International Education at 11 a.m. Thursday, Nov. 19, for a Zoom presentation with Master of Fine Arts candidate Acadia Kandora. This event is open to the public and offered at no cost to attendees, and registration is required. Kandora will present "Shifting Landscape: an Ecological Blend of the Virtual and Physical."

About the Artist

Moving nine times throughout her childhood, Acadia Kandora was born in New Jersey, but didn't stay there long. Constant change has given her an experimental drive to continue to push traditional processes. Acadia received her BFA with concentrations in Graphic Design and Sculpture from Shepherd University in 2017. She funneled her design and sculpture backgrounds into printmaking, and figured out how to combine these mediums into one singular process. Now an M.F.A. candidate at the University of Arkansas, she has exhibited nationally in exhibitions such as the Ink It Juried Exhibition in Germantown, Maryland; The Pushing Paper National Juried Exhibition in Indianapolis, Indiana; and the 29th National Drawing & Print Competitive Exhibition in Baltimore, Maryland. Currently Acadia's work focuses on themes of manufacturing the natural, post-nature, and the deconstruction and reconstruction of environments. Her work reimagines the definition of nature and explores alternate forms that blur the line between fact and fiction.

Artist Statement

"I am a Printmaker, nature enthusiast, and M.F.A. student here at the University of Arkansas. My current work reflects upon a post-climate change world where humans are trying to rebuild nature from scratch. I use specimen logic, scientific diagrams, landscape theory, isolation, and the glitch to reflect on this future — a future that questions the definition of landscape and how we examine the environment as a larger system. I tackle this by visually exploring an ecological blend of the virtual and physical realms within my work.

Landscape is an ever-changing word that implicates human activity, interaction, and intervention. It is connected to our psyche, language, and history. Landscape both represents where we come from and what we are now culturally disconnected from due to the effects of the Anthropocene. The constantly changing state of landscape is why the hybrid of physical and digital exists within my work. These visual propositions allow me to blend found and imagined landscape with a cybernetic approach. I use printmaking and the multiple to make the work more accessible as well as to contemplate the idea of reproducibility. Using copy/paste logic, nature becomes an open edition within the new landscapes I propose. I make this work to call attention to the barren aftermath of the environmental crisis we now find ourselves in and will ultimately continue to face in the near future."

About the Series

The Graduate Student Speaker Series debuted in fall 2018 as a platform for students to share the research they have conducted using Special Collections materials. Graduate students from all majors who are interested in presenting on the research they have done using Special Collections materials are encouraged to visit the speaker series webpage to learn more and apply to present.