A wide shot of a ceramics studio, featuring students working with pottery wheels and other tools.
Four masked people gather around a table containing art supplies.

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Eliza Fernand

Lecturer

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Contact

Bio

Education: BFA, 2006, Pacific Northwest College of Art, Portland, OR; MFA, 2021, Sierra Nevada University, Incline Village, NV. 

Awards

Seed Grant Recipient of ArtPrize and the Frey Foundation, Resident Artist at Wassaic Project, Artist in Residence at Ox-Bow School of Art.

Publications

Bibliography: Chicago Reader; Chicago Artist Writers; Chicago Filmmakers. 

Exhibitions

Experimental Sound Studio, Chicago: Roman Susan Art Foundation, Chicago; Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts, Grand Rapids, MI; Sweet Pass Sculpture Park, Dallas, TX; Center for Contemporary Art, Santa Fe, NM; Wassaic Project, Wassaic, NY. 

Personal Statement

In both my teaching and my studio practice, collaboration, challenge, and possibility are key. I believe that we learn from each other and that all voices in the conversation are of equal value. I begin classes with an opening circle, each person sharing their response to a prompt or presenting part of a current assignment. I prioritize my students being open to new ideas and thinking for themselves, and I model this openness by enthusiastically exposing them to a diverse range of contemporary artists and holding open discussions about oppressive systems and lived experiences. I aim to create a sense of possibility through mixing media, expanding ideas, and offering real world opportunities to students, nurturing a sense of joy and play and situating them as creative practitioners in the world. Group work, field trips, visiting artists, free-writing, and critique sessions are all tools I use to keep the classroom energy active.

Courses

Title Department Catalog Term

Description

Discover the exciting world of animation as you bring your drawings and ideas to life. In this course, you'll explore traditional and digital animation techniques, such as frame-by-frame and stop-motion. Get ready to work on various cool projects that let you express your imagination through motion studies, character and environment design, and captivating storytelling. You'll learn cinematic techniques, including composition, set design, and prop creation, while developing a final project that reflects your unique goals and interests. To enhance your experience, enjoy artist presentations, take inspiring trips to the Art Institute of Chicago, and engage in dynamic group discussions.

Class Number

1075

Credits

1

Description

This studio course focuses on themes, practices, contexts, and questions undertaken by contemporary artists and designers. Research Studio I is a course that asks students to begin to develop and connect their own work and ideas with a diverse range of artists, designers, and communities. This course engages with cultural institutions including: museums, galleries, libraries and archives as resources of critical engagement.

Students will undertake various types of research activities: a) collecting and classification, b) mapping and diagramming, c) systems of measurement, d) social interaction, e) information search systems, f) recording and representation, and g) drawing and other notational systems.


Assignments in this course are faculty directed, open-media, interdisciplinary and idea based. The projects are designed to help students recognize their work habits, biases, strengths, and weaknesses. Students will experience a wide range of research methods and making strategies. Critique as an evaluative process used in art and design schools, is a focus in this course. Various methods and models of critique are used in order to give students the tools to discuss their own work and the work of others.

Class Number

1419

Credits

3

Description

In this course students will research ghostly traditions from their own lineages and delve into the histories of their immediate surroundings by finding local ghosts and public monuments in Chicago. We will consider ghosts as possibilities beyond the paranormal by exploring eco grief and nostalgia, and questioning monuments in a search for transparency around public art. Through studying various hauntologies, students will generate their own research topics that will be the basis for study projects and a proposed monument. We will develop a routine of field trips and individual research and study works by Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Michael Rakowitz, Heidi Lau, Tania Bruguera, Killjoy's Kastle, Félix González-Torres, and Monument Lab.

Class Number

1212

Credits

3