While many aspects of the movement for racial equity in Madison and across the country have included protests and press conferences, Jay Katelansky uses a phantom to fight the status quo in Madison, which she described as a “bubble.”
In her Master’s thesis art show, “Jay Katelansky Seeks Phantom,” she uses her artwork to embody a phantom that lives in a place like Ferguson or Williamson Street. Her work exhibits the phantom’s experience of living in places where unarmed people of color are killed.
Katelansky, Moore College of Art and Design graduate and now a second-year fine arts graduate student at UW-Madison, has always focused her work on racial issues. She uses paintings, projections, videos, tape and more to re-create the “Black-American experience.”
Her work is not simply for her professors to see. Katelansky said the most important part of her work is the conversations it inspires in people who see it. With a notable web presence distributing her art, anyone around the country can see and experience her message.
But Madison in particular has posed many problems for her goal to spark deeper conversations about race and racial inequalities. Katelansky said many people in Madison shy away from talking about these types of issues.
“Facilitating these conversations is hard, especially in places such as Madison where race isn’t talked about so openly at all,” Katelansky said. “It’s like we’re in our own bubble, and no one speaks about [race].”
Her Master’s show has helped to get her the feedback she has wanted. Along with insightful critiques from her professors, many students and others from the public have approached her with questions and comments that have given her new ideas.
Spurred on by the new conversations, Katelansky said she has found inspiration in varying kinds of public engagement with racial issues. Young, Gifted, and Black Coalition’s efforts in particular have shown her how the public is combating racial inequalities beside her.
“The ongoing strength that people have in fighting what has been happening … [is] such a huge inspiration, because even though I’m making work about it, there’s other people doing other things that are also part of the movement,” Katelansky said.
