Aliza Nisenbaum, Visual Arts, and Tom Kalin, Film
Introduced by Carol Becker, Dean of Columbia University School of the Arts
School of the Arts faculty members Aliza Nisenbaum and Tom Kalin discussed the solo exhibition, Aliza Nisenbaum, on display through June 27 at Tate Liverpool.
“The exhibition captures the stories of British frontline NHS (National Health Service) workers and highlights the impact that Covid-19 has had on their jobs and home lives. Sitters include a professor of Outbreak Medicine, a respiratory doctor who became a father during the first wave, and a student nurse who comes from a family of nurses who all chose to return to frontline work.
“Throughout August [2020], Nisenbaum got to know the selected NHS staff, talking to them via video link from her studio in the US. She uses these conversations to include elements of their personality and interests within her paintings. They are shown alongside things that have given them support and hope through this difficult time, such as pets or musical instruments.”
Watch the event above or on our YouTube Channel. A video about Aliza Nisenbaum’s latest work at Tate Liverpool is also available.
About Complex Issues
Complex Issues explores difference, visibility, and representation through recent work by faculty of Columbia University and Columbia University School of the Arts in particular. Conversations invite challenging questions of racial, ethnic, gender, economic, sexual, religious, and cultural complexity, and how they are articulated across discipline and genre today.