What´s in it for you? Plenty!
The practice of Sister Corita

12 April – 10 May 2008
Opening: 12 April, 7-9pm

The exhibition takes place at JET, Berlin
Curated by Signal

Installation views from the exhibition

With the 2008 exhibition series Adventurers, JET explores various situations where art and life coincide in artistic practice and where aspects of artists’ own lives are woven into their artistic production.

What´s in it for you? Plenty!The practice of Sister Corita is the first exhibition in this series. It focuses on the multifaceted creative practice of the nun, teacher and artist Corita Kent (1918-1986), a practice that in every way exemplifies such deep affinity between art and life. A practicing Catholic nun and teacher, Sister Corita encouraged the creativity of thousands of people at the legendary, progressive art department at Immaculate Heart College in Los Angeles. She is also considered one of the most unusual pop artists of the 1960s, challenging political and religious establishments and experimenting with graphic design and printmaking.What´s in it for you? Plenty! maps out these diverse activities of Sister Corita. It highlights her joyous understanding of art, education, religion and social engagement and emphasizes the ways in which such affirmative perspective is present in all her undertakings. The exhibition displays key publications by and about Sister Corita and photographs from her own archive, alongside Baylis Glascock´s documentary Corita Kent: On Teaching and Celebration and a selection of serigraphs.

Wittingly sampling well-known slogans and images, Sister Corita used the efficient visual language of advertisement and popular culture to transform the commercial and banal into inspiring messages and celebratory exclamations that merge philosophical reflection and a sense of protest against social injustice. Her slogan for the art department at Immaculate Heart College, ‘We have no art, we do everything as well as we can,’ testifies to her conviction that art is not something that stands apart from life, but something that forms a part of our continuous dialogue with the world in which we live. Through her work she shows that optimism can be a subtle yet powerful form of criticality.

Welcome!

Mary´s Day Procession, May 1964. Photo: Corita Kent.
Courtesy of the Corita Art Center, Immaculate Heart Community, Los Angeles

Thanks to Julie Ault.

This exhibition is on loan from the Corita Art Center, Immaculate Heart Community, Los Angeles, CA. With support by Hauptstadtkulturfonds, Swedish Arts Council and the City of Malmö.

JET
Memhardstrasse 1
10178 Berlin
www.j-e-t.org

Opening hours: Thursday - Saturday 4-7pm

Julie Ault, Come Alive! The Spirited Art of Sister Corita (London: Four Corner Books, 2006).