Student Body (SUNY New Paltz) is a group portrait representing the people on campus who are engaged in learning. Symbolizing individuality within a unified “student body,” it is made from clothes that students donated and worked with the artist to deconstruct and re-assemble into a curtain installation. Just as student cohorts change from class to class and each semester, the installation can be reconfigured by sliding the curtains along a ceiling track.  

The collaborative process behind the work is as important to its meaning as the mobility of the installation. Recalling knitting or quilting circles, each opportunity for student participation expressed the community-building and shared sense of purpose that exists within the academic sphere. 

Student contributors: 

Sarah Abramowitz, Matthew Barber, Julia Barbour, Alyssa Bardoun, Seth Britton, Gabriella Borukhov, Sherman Bray, Gabbi Bush, Molly Canner, Bella Cremo, James Cuccia, Lucia Daher, Ashley Eglit, Rue Gallagher, Eryn Greene, Gabrielle Greer, Olivia Hallstein, Estyn Hulbert, Margot Hulme, Bethany Itzla, Ariana Kata, Jacqueline Kelly, Al Knipe, Stella Lee, Mackenzie Levitt, Izadora Meares, Jolie Orbeta, Ariana Paisley, Griffin Propeack, Devon Reuse, Adrian Rothpearl, Ismene Roque, Celina Sciuto, Mary Jane Shepard-Nusbaum, Kevin Shortell, Trevor Slowinksi, Corinne Stanton, Emmanuel Steffani, Suzanne Stokes, Affan Waheed, Mars Weigley, Caelen Williams