Cornell in Rome

On Thursday, May 12th, Cornell in Rome program held the final exhibition of the semester. Many people outside of the program came to see the hard work that students had done throughout the semester.

- Sunny Kim

Entrance to the Exhibition

First floor of the exhibition by Fine Arts students. Artworks by Ginny Johnson and Erica Sutton

Rudolf Uhlemann (Landscape Architecture, Cornell University '12)

Nora Price (Brown University '12) and Sabrina Marie Howard (Williams '12) enjoy the exhibition

Fine Arts professor Stan Taft and his students: Erica Sutton, Sunny Kim, Sava Demanski, and Susan Yue (Brown University '12)

Planning love! (Claire Douglass, TA Claudia Meschiari, Angela Sun, Cassandra Gallagher)

Anna Rita cuts the delicious cake to celebrate the final show!

[Internship] Student Interview 3: Han Yang Lee, Brown University ’12

Han Yang Lee (Han Lee) is a student at Brown University, class of 2012. He is majoring in Liberal Arts, Visual Art, and Economics.

Photograph by Kim Murphy

1. Can you give us a brief description of the organization that you are working for?:

I am working as a studio assistant for the Italian artist Pietro Ruffo (http://www.pietroruffo.com). He is a very logical, conscientious, and philosophical guy. His thought process is directly reflected in his work.

2. What are your responsibilities?

I fabricate things and help out with his post-production (framing, etc). I also help out with installations at exhibition places.

4. What is your time commitment?

10-12 hours a week. Transportation takes 3 hours a day.

Han working at artist Pietro Ruffo's studio. The guy sitting on a chair is Pietro. Photograph by Han Yang Lee

3. What have you learned? Have there been any difficulties?

I have learned a lot – I have gained better understanding about being a professional artist in the contemporary art world. You need to be good at marketing and presenting your work yourself. Difficulties would be the pressure for good quality work. I need to do a good job and not make any mistakes. Adapting to his drawing skills was difficult since he does lots of delicate pencil drawings. But in general, things were not too hard. There are only opportunities to learn.

4. What have you been working on these days?

For the last month and a half I have been working on Pietro’s Biennale project. Also his recent solo show in Paris.

5. What is your favorite aspect of the internship?

My favorite part would be getting a very close contact with an artist’s mind. It was very interesting to understand how things influence an artist and to learn about his personal insight. I also enjoy the personal relationship that I developed with the artist; he is an awesome guy.

6. How has this experience influenced you and your future plans?

The internship has given me more confidence to become a professional artist. Hopefully this experience would open up a door for me to enter the art world in the States… or any career that involves a creative mind.

- Sunny Kim

Buon appetito tutti!

Today, Professor Medina Lasansky’s class (ARCH3819: 20th Century Italian Design) had a potluck dinner at her apartment. This dinner was a continuation of our last class discussion topic on Italian food; each student brought one Italian dish, presenting its recipe and history. We also invited Anna Rita to the dinner since she has been offering so much quality Italian food on the occasional group dinners at the Palazzo. Everyone brought amazing dishes, and we ate SO MUCH. It was another pleasant and happy meal in Rome.

The meal started with tasting several different types of bottled water produced in Italy- Medina gave us thorough explanations on bottled water madness in this peninsula! Here are some fun facts about Italian water brands and other beverages:

- Mineral Water

Mineral water is bottled water that comes from underwater sources. Italy Produces more than 600 brands of mineral water: Panna from Tuscany / San Benedetto from near Venice / Levissima (Northern’s Italy’s most popular brand) / Suio (popular in Lazio). The country consumes more than twice the European average (on average 200 liters a year). Tuscans are the most loyal buyers of mineral water.

Different types of bottled water in Italy

Different waters have mineral contents (Sodium, Potassium, Calcium, Phosphorus, Magnesium, Iron, Iodine, Zinc, Florine, Magnesium, etc.) in differing amounts.

People drink according to their health needs. In other words, if you have high blood pressure, difficulty with digestion, are young, old -  you drink accordingly. Babies and children should have water that is rich in calcium and magnesium. Adults over 50 should have water that is heavy in calcium to prevent osteoporosis. The elderly should drink water heavy in calcium, sulfates, and magnesium, etc.

Attempts to “re-brand” tap water (such as those undertaken in Florence by the grocery chain COOP) has been actively discouraged by Mineraqua (the consortium of mineral water producers).

- San Pellegrino (Aranciata) was created in 1932 using San Pellegrino mineral water and oranges from Sicily.

- Fanta (the German autarchical soda) – During World War II, a Coca Cola bottling plant in German invented Fanta (short for Fantasie) at a time when they were unable to import the ingredients to make Coca Cola due to an embargo.   At the end of the war, Coca-Cola decided to export Fanta.

(Continued in the next post)