World Class/Happy Daze

Faculty Lecture with Jennifer D. Lee and Jennifer N. Kidwell

I was commissioned to design the poster for the public dialogue between Dr. Jennifer Dorothy Lee, and artist-performer, Jennifer Nikki Kidwell at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
The dialogue took place as part of the faculty lecture series organized by the department of Art History, Theory, and Criticism, Decolonizing Art History: Research Under Lockdown
The dialogue included Lee and Kidwell’s shared memories of their formative years studying under Dr. Gayatri Spivak at Columbia University. Raising examples of Dr. Spivak’s teaching of the 19th and 20th century Euro-American canons through a Feminist and Marxist lens, Lee and Kidwell’s conversation refreshed the continuous project of decolonizing contemporary disciplines in the humanities.
The overall color scheme and font choice refers to Columbia University’s logo.
To bring out the transformative aspects of Dr. Spivak’s teaching, as well as her essential role in Lee and Kidwell’s formation, I turn Dr. Spivak’s hand gestures, commonly seen during her lectures and speeches, into a symbol embedded in the Columbia U crown. Such gestures, framed by a rainbow ribbon, represent the change taking place within the institution’s shell.