Student wins scholarship (satire)
Invictus by Sarah Silverschitz was awarded the Best-of-Show in Harvard’s competitive all-campus art exhibition.
Each year the university selects one work for inclusion in its permanent art collection. The winning artist is offered a full scholarship to his or her choice of any graduate college at Harvard.
Ms. Silverschitz won by taking an ordinary print and “evolving” it to timeless power, poignancy, and simplicity. Her brilliance lay in the fact that she mixed the blue paint herself, and used a butcher knife brought by her grandmother from a ghetto in Poland.
“The knife has dried blood on it,” Silverschitz said, “from a time when my family butchered thousands of lambs as religious offerings. Hence the lamb in the scene. The work takes a Deconstructionist approach to Christian patriarchy, and re-interprets anti-Semitism through a Lacanian lens, while questioning its milieu throuigh a close reading of Freudian semiotics.”
The judges’ criteria included novelty, ethical import, and aesthetic appeal. In this context, panelist Ari Rosenthal singled out Ms. Silverschitz for special praise. “With one stroke she has revolutionized Western art, while creating political impact through her depiction of a figure in Israel. All other entries were meticulously painted by accomplished artists, some of them already famous in China and elsewhere. Ms. Silverman was the only contestant who never did anything artistic before this . That gives her masterpiece a freshness we haven’t seen in years.”
Several members of the judging panel felt that other works were potentially as powerful, but judges reached a unanimous decision when contestants gave their oral presentations.
“Sarah got up there and announced that she doesn’t intend to become an attorney at all,” Rosenthal added. “She simply wanted the scholarship because a Harvard Law degree looks good on a resume. Given her emphasis on cultural criticism, we couldn’t help but be impressed with the irony of her bold comment. Her confidence and wry haughtiness were irresistable.”
Several competitors protested when they discovered that Silverschitz used a common print obtained from Wal-Mart ®. One envious rival complained that, “Any child could have done that.”
“That’s the point,” Rosenthal countered. “By appropriating an icon of Western heritage, Sarah made a profound statement regarding modern consumerist culture. And since the print was manufactured in China, her concept is nothing less than a global triumph.”
Another student claimed that Ms. Silverschitz only won because she is Jewish; otherwise she would not have been allowed to enter the show in the first place. The student was immediately expelled, and now faces a lawsuit brought by the Anti-Defecation League.
Ms. Silverschitz will begin law school in the fall of 2007. Money for the scholarship (worth $479,000) will come from the General Fund for the State of Massachusetts.
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