Conversation XI: Pomp Up the Jam: Splendor, Performance, & Pageantry in Art
Exhibition Overview
Pomp (n.)
1.stately or splendid display; splendor; magnificence.
2.ostentatious display, esp. of dignity or importance.
3.pomps, pompous displays, actions, or things: The official was accompanied by all the pomps of his high position.
4.a stately or splendid procession; pageant.
Pomp up the Jam: Splendor, Pageantry, and Performance in Art explores the various ways that rituals, parades, and other displays of magnificence are visually constructed, as well as the roles that artworks play in their enactment. It also examines how performances can inform the identities of groups and individuals. The exhibition gathers together an engaging variety of objects from the Museum’s permanent collection, including historic prints, glittering parade armor, elaborate ceremonial vestments, video, photography, and vivid contemporary artworks. Pomp, pageantry, and splendor can have a broad range of socio-cultural meanings and take on many different forms. Artworks that record this pomp and performance through the eyes of both participants and spectators also serve to transform events, people, and objects from the mundane into the splendid.
The exhibition organizers are the 2010–2011 Spencer Museum student interns: Denise Giannino, Jordan Jacobson, Chassica Kirchhoff, Meredith Moore, Ellen Raimond, Sarah C. Schroeder, Natalie Svacina, and Amanda Wright.
