Shark Fin Soup @ Alfstad& Contemporary ( October - 2015)


Stude’s underwater monochromatic photographs show evidence of human intervention where there should be none. Beautiful and mysterious large-scale shots of the oceans’ depths show emptiness except for marks left by humans but devoid of sharks. Emphasizing that emptiness, Stude offers the viewer a stunning image and at the same time a stark reminder that the shark population could disappear or become extinct. Unlike Thor Heyerdahl’s remarkable journey long ago showing detritus in the seas and the damage being done to the oceans, Stude portrays the oceans as a destitute underwater scape. Both are warnings to us as readers and viewers: it matters if we litter, our environment matters, and it matters if sharks are obliterated from the sea.In contrast to the large and poignant photographs of underwater scenes, small images of the front half of a shark add another dimension to the exhibit. Here are the sharks. They exist. Some in bright red and yellow coloring hang in a large repetitive pattern much like a Warholian silkscreen exhibition.

-- Dr. Ann Albritton October 2015


2015

365 woodblock prints, oil, black ink, graphite

60 x 190 inch

 

In installation from a series protesting humanity’s slaughter of the ocean’s apex predator in pursuit of shark

fin soup. Each woodcut print  represents one day of the year, cataloged with an estimated number of sharks

killed that day to supply the Chinese delicacy that has brought many shark species to the brink of extinction.