Students Shocked By Brooklyn College’s Damage of Artwork

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Marni Kotak
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Students Shocked By Brooklyn College’s Damage of Artwork

Five Days After Unauthorized Removal, Students Are Allowed to Inspect Work and Find Extensive Damages and Many Artworks Missing

NEW YORK (May 14, 2006, 2:30PM) Five days after Brooklyn College conducted the unauthorized removal of MFA students’ work from the Brooklyn War Memorial, students were finally allowed access yesterday to inspect the current condition of their works and found extensive damages and many artworks missing.

MFA students at Brooklyn College reviewed damages to their artwork yesterday after Brooklyn College employees moved the work against students’ will from the Brooklyn War Memorial to an unknown location on campus last Monday. Inspection was permitted and coordinated by the Brooklyn College Vice President of Finance Steve Little and Brooklyn College Gallery Director Maria Rand. Students have been waiting for this access from college officials, who have refused prior requests, since last Monday.

At 9am yesterday students arrived at Roosevelt Hall on the Brooklyn College campus prepared to inspect their work together. The students were surprised to find that Mr. Little had ordered the officers to allow students access only one at a time. This caused the process to last until 6pm yesterday afternoon.

Under the supervision of Brooklyn College CUNY security officers and with the aid of Graduate Deputy Karen Giusti, students found their work improperly packaged in garbage bags, much of it irreparably damaged and some pieces missing. Professor Giusti remarked, “I’ve never seen a group of artists’ work so totally destroyed.”

Carrie Fucile, who built a 7’ x 8’ x 10’ wooden house as part of an installation, could find barely a trace of the large structure among the two rooms in which the work was stowed. A few pieces of the dismantled installation were used as packaging for other works of art, others were later located out by the loading dock for raw materials and trash.

Marni Kotak could not find over 10 original drawings, the video documentation of her live performance at the show opening, and most of the elements of her 10’ x 20’ site-specific installation. She found two chalkboard drawings irreparably destroyed. Tamas Veszi could not find his entire site-specific installation, and could only find two damaged paintings and three destroyed sculptures. Neither Fucile, Kotak nor Veszi were allowed to adequately document their site-specific works prior to their demolition.

Augusto Marin’s large folding chair and wall sculpture and Yejin Jun’s foam and pins sculpture were found in pieces, and the work of John Aveluto, Megan Piontkowski, Susan Dessel, Carla Aspenberg, Pamela Gordon, and other artists suffered damages. Most of the approximately $20,000 worth of digital equipment utilized for the exhibition was found jumbled together in large boxes or trash bags without the proper carrying cases. Several artists also reported missing personal items such as a video camera, DVD players, and original personal documents.

The student show, mounted as a graduation requirement for the Master of Fine Arts Degree at Brooklyn College of the City University of New York, was suddenly shut down at about 3:30PM on Thursday, May 4, 2006, by Brooklyn Borough Parks Commissioner, Julius Spiegel, who deemed the work not “appropriate for families.” On Monday, May 8, Brooklyn College removed the students’ artwork from the Brooklyn War Memorial without their permission.

The artists in the exhibition include: Carla Aspenberg, Jill Auckenthaler, John Avelluto, Zoe Cohen, David Davron, Susan C. Dessel, Carl James Ferrero, Carrie Fucile, Pamela Gordon, Yejin Jun, Diane Kosup, Marni Kotak, Augusto Marin, Akiko Mori, Christopher Moss, Sarah Phillips, Megan Piontkowski and Tamas Veszi.

For further information on the developing story of Plan B and Plan C, visit http://plancensored.blogspot.com.