Susan Rice said her exhibit in Patterson Gallery this week will provide a small haven of serenity in celebration of Italy's relaxed culture and tranquil landscapes.
Rice (senior-art) said her photography exhibition, Il Cuore Verde: The Green Heart, consists of photographs taken over a span of four months throughout Italy while she studied abroad. To replicate the relaxed atmosphere of Italy, she transformed the gallery space itself into a loose replica of an Italian piazza, complete with fairy lights and an Italian flag, she said.
Il Cuore Verde will be on display in the Patterson Gallery today through Saturday. There will be a reception in the gallery from 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday.
Rice said she felt her photographs convey the sense of relaxation that struck her while studying in Italy.
"The pictures reflect a slower pace of life," she said. "There are a lot of sunsets and landscapes, people relaxing, chilling by the ocean, standing on rocks."
Nicole Polizzi, a student at Arcadia University who studied abroad with Rice, said Rice shot thousands of photographs with no initial intention of displaying them formally in a gallery. Rice said she chose the photographs now on display based on their quality, not a particular underlying theme.
"I picked the ones that looked the best, based on overall coloring, composition or time of day," Rice said.
Polizzi added Rice took vacation photos and turned them into art through a "second process" of editing, which included cropping and color enhancement.
Rice said color is especially important in her photography and in the exhibit, which includes only one black-and-white photograph.
"[Color] really conveys a sense of the space in the different places that we went to," she said.
Rice's photos primarily depict Italian landscapes scattered in locations all across Italy. According to a map of Italy hanging in the gallery, the photographs derive from Rome, Venice, Perugia, Firenze, Cinque Terre, Assisi, Siena and Cortona.
Rice said the photographs are grouped into threes, based on aesthetics rather than location. Each photograph is untitled, she added, and the locations in which the specific photographs are taken are not stated.
"The pictures speak for themselves," she said.
