Studio Life (2022)

Studio Life (2022) is a culminating group exhibition from professor Vesna Pavlovic's ARTS2202: Lives of Images course where Alwan debuted Glassware 01-04, Scenes From Under a Table, and Conversational Ties during his junior year at Vanderbilt University. Alwan’s black and white photographs in Studio Life are representations of human connections. He uses glassware to construct images that both evoke conversations in the present moment and display their aftermath. The works depict the transformation of mundane objects into vessels for self-inspection.

What is a photograph? Through Alwan’s pieces, he pushes the boundaries of photography by examining different processes of image making. He first created photograms of glassware, scanned them, and printed them as transparencies. He then created fabric cyanotypes with the transparencies, scanned them once again, and printed them large scale in black and white. While the process is what first intrigued Alwan, playing with glass and light allowed him to unmask themes of vulnerability.

In Scenes From Under a Table, Alwan was prompted by the constructed image. Once again, he uses cups as props for his work. In this six photo series, he captures photographs from underneath a constructed plexiglass table, using his peers as models to question themes of secrecy, intimacy, and the mystery of an encounter. In this way, Alwan creates conditions for connection to occur and confidential communication to be secretly surveilled. Alwan “sets the table” in an attempt to question the fragile nature of relationships by forcing closeness and tension between subjects.

Alwan’s final piece, Conversational Ties (not pictured here), is now part of the Jerry Phillips Private Collection.