DESMA seniors display the culmination of their studies in ‘Sincerely,’ exhibition

Editor’s note: This article contains references to sexual assault that may be disturbing to some readers.

The senior Design Media Arts class is signing off with their exhibition “Sincerely.”

An amalgamation of visual and interactive art elements, this year’s exhibition will be presented at the Experimental Digital Arts and Untitled Gallery until June 18. Playing on the metaphor of a letter, “Sincerely,” marks the final note on the graduating class’ growth both as artists and as people throughout their time at UCLA. Fourth-year design media arts student Anika Murthy said the exhibition is a platform for budding artists to share their inspirations and journeys as a culminating finale of their studies.

“The theme of ‘Sincerely,’ is all of us DESMA students in this cohort writing our farewells to our major and the bodies of work that we’ve created within it,” Murthy said.

Titled “A Tapestry is a Timeline,” Murthy’s piece is an ode to her South Asian culture while honoring the nature of womanhood, she said. Wielding the narrative power of tapestries, her presentation consists of three tapestries that she said blend elements of her culture to demonstrate the intertwined reality of ancestry.

The first tapestry includes deconstructed textiles of her mother’s Indian clothing, which symbolizes a reclaiming of Indian aesthetics from its modern exploitation, she said. Through this, she said she hopes to place Indian aesthetics on the map and facilitate an appreciation for their historical roots. The second and third tapestries further attempt to visualize maternal and cultural healing through creation by sewing fragments of family memorabilia, satellite images of her ancestral village and a poem written by her great-grandmother, she said.

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As an Indian American woman, Murthy said she was inspired by the rich history of her lineage, which made this piece a fitting cinch to her artistic journey. By weaving in aspects of her mother’s clothing, her great-grandmother’s poetry and her own embroidery artwork, she said she hopes to present a political piece on womanhood and femininity that speaks to the matriarchal lineages each individual comes from. Moreover, Murthy said the piece is a love letter to her mother and the eternal, lifelong connection that follows motherhood.

“This piece is really for my South Asian women and women of color,” Murthy said. “I want my South Asian community to enter this exhibition and feel seen and feel like their culture can be represented in new and abstract ways.”

The theme of women’s empowerment continues in the work of fourth-year design media arts student Joy Yang. Her piece takes the form of a 2D multiplayer video game titled “Dick Dash” where she said players, visualized as penises, compete to capture the most floating genitals in 69 seconds. The game is complemented by two penis-shaped couches and controllers modeled after breasts, Yang said. The purpose of developing the game, she said, was to uplift her friend who had experienced sexual assault. By reducing the offenders to tiny penises on a screen, the game creates a satire on sexual predators, Yang said, while simultaneously dethroning them from their dominance.

“They’re (sexual predators are) not these scary people in positions of power anymore,” Yang said. “They’re just these little penises bouncing around.”

Presenting her piece at this exhibition has given empowerment to some sexual victims and oppressed individuals by allowing players to use a penis — the body part that oppressors are usually most proud of — for their own amusement in the game, she said. In addition, Yang said the game draws attention to the numerous untold incidents of sexual assault by emphasizing the power dynamics of genitals that pervades society.

[Related: Graduate Open Studios exhibition showcases students’ career works]

Also using a technical platform, Liliana Apodaca hopes to articulate the sway of artificial intelligence in the modern world through her app. The fifth-year design media arts student said her exhibition piece, titled “Pleina,” is an interactive AI app that allows users to find nearby resources pertinent to creative searches. For instance, a user can search “I want to be a dragon,” and the app will respond with role-playing groups or online forums that would help them fulfill their desires, she said.

“Pleina” draws from an art concept, plein-air, that entails painting outside, which comes back to the idea of repainting the world as one wishes – a feat she strives to fulfill through the transformative potential of AI, Apodaca said. As a transgender woman, exploring avenues to redesign the world has always fascinated her, and she said she hopes the app can provide the audience with the power to help reform the world they inhabit.

“(The theme) is more of this cathartic thing to be like ‘Oh, Sincerely, – this is our sign off, this is what we have to show for the work that we’ve done,'” Apodaca said. “This (The exhibition) is a chance to show off all of the skills that you’ve learned in DESMA.”