Thesis Re-Placed
Thesis Re-Placed
Where: Abrazo Gallery @ The Clemente
When: May 21st- May 29th
Viewing Hours: May 23rd - May 29th 12-5pm (closed on Monday 5/20 for Memorial Day)
Opening Reception: May 21st 5-8pm
Special Performance in the Kabayitos Theater at 6:30pm!
Participating Students: Ji Hoo Ahn, Razaq AlMughni, Jaemin Baek, Laela Baker , Grace Ballo , Ezekiel Binns , Aerin Chavez , Jiayi Chen , Denise Cholula , Ji Yong (Jacob) Chung , Augustine Crain , Martina Duque Gonzalez , Alex Han , Annie He , Andrew Hebert , Jiwon (Jenny) Heo , Sara Ilich , Ru Jia , Rebecca John , Austin Lai , MC Love , Yuan (Alice) Meng , Daniel Park , Kaivana Patel , Julia Penchaszadeh Robert, Chulin (Patrick) Yu , Xinyuan (Jayden) Zhang
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The Clemente is pleased to host the Cooper Union Architecture class of 2024 for their thesis exhibition, Thesis Re-Placed !
Statement :
Every May, the End of Year Show transforms the classrooms, hallways, and studios of The Cooper Union into a living public gallery. Generation after generation, students have been proud to present their critical inquiries and work to their family and friends, alumni, the public, and their peers across the architecture, art, and engineering schools. This tradition is not merely a public exhibition; it is a fundamental part of the School of Architecture and has been since before its founding in 1975.
This academic year has been defined across the country and world by student protests against the genocide in Gaza. The Cooper Union, like many other schools, was thrown into the limelight last October, and as the year has gone on, the administration has continually made decisions that polarize and criminalize the student body, effectively limiting our freedom of speech and education. In fear of protest amidst public gatherings, the administration enforced a limit on students’ guests for this year’s End of Year Show, eliminating any public event, along with any sense of celebration and community that this event has historically represented.
It is with a heavy heart that this year we, The Cooper Union School of Architecture thesis class of 2024, have left behind the Third Floor Lobby, the space we have looked forward to filling with our final projects. While we lament removing our work from the heart of the School of Architecture, we value our collective abilities to make and share our work and prioritize a communal, public gathering over keeping our work inside of The Cooper Union.
The Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural & Educational Center has generously offered to us their gallery space Abrazo (which fittingly means embrace). We are grateful to display our work in a center whose mission is guided by a “legacy of building culturally grounded multigenerational leadership, local power, and mutuality in times of crisis.” The Clemente allows us to share a moment of mutuality and collectivity at a crucial time when the administration of The Cooper Union is extinguishing such moments.
In the past five years, this class has grown together most through our collective abilities to care for each other and produce work collectively rather than competitively. Each project in this exhibition represents the hard work we have each put into researching and curating a thesis deeply rooted in our own interests, beliefs, and identities. Each project is also a product of our shared knowledge-making processes and is strengthened by those around it. Through this collectively produced and curated exhibition, we bring the spirit of The Cooper Union with us to this new unrestricted space.
