The School of Art in the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences congratulates Eric Andre on his M.F.A. Thesis Exhibition: The Systemic Punches: Displacement Experience of Vulnerable Immigrants.

The Systemic Punches: Displacement Experience of Vulnerable Immigrants is on display through this Friday, April 23, at the Fine Arts Center Gallery.

Andre will graduate in August with his Master of Fine Arts degree with an emphasis in ceramics. He is native of Ghana and earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology Kumasi, Ghana.

His work in this exhibition uses abstract and perceptual driven artworks to explore the idea of displacement, vulnerability and negotiation to challenge the sociocultural, sociopolitical and socioeconomic systems that control the way people live, work and relate to one another within and beyond boundaries.

"Currently, I use the Ghanaian proverbs and sayings as a lens to explore the experience of displacement and vulnerability resulting from ubiquitous and complex systems of control and oppression," Andre said.

He shares how the work offers a critique of how people's negotiation of space attracts various interpretations of systems of power and privilege that are not necessarily mutually exclusive.

Andre describes this critique as essential to highlight the need for a more comprehensive understanding of displacement dynamics to understand how to better address all of these systemic issues.

"Security checkpoints, borders and migration signify different meanings depending on the contexts and interlocutors," Andre said. "My works highlight the tension that results from the nationalist perspective realizing the complexities of the immigrant view of what it means to live, while simultaneously recognizing and appreciating the interconnectedness between them."

The installation seeks to use a participatory approach to situate viewers in spaces where they are emotionally, psychologically and physically disoriented and displaced, challenging them to confront and reconsider their own complex identities, positionalities and their existence in the world.

Andre shares a quote by physicist and Nobel Prize winner, Max Planck: "When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change."

The exhibition is designed to create an environment where people can see themselves through Andre's eyes. Audiences are able to walk through the process of border crossing and the experience of a strange space to cause them to reflect, recognize and understand each other's perspectives and experiences. In addition to the exhibition, there are performances which will include the audiences as the major part of the performance.