Artist Talk & Panel with Sherrill Roland

This program is now FULL. To be added to our WAITLIST, please email acklandRSVP@unc.edu.

Using Sherrill Roland’s piece Processing Systems: Bonding as a jumping off point, this artist talk and panel will explore artistic expression, the American carceral system, and the visualization of data. After a discussion of Roland’s monumental numerical portraits on view at the Ackland, Roland will be joined by panelists Bharati Zvara, Associate Professor in the Department of Maternal and Child Health (MCH) in the Gillings School of Global Public Health, and Kylie Seltzer, art historian and Carolina Public Humanities Zietlow Postdoctoral Fellow. The program will be moderated by Lauren Turner, associate curator for contemporary art and special projects at the Ackland.

Presented in partnership with Carolina Public Humanities.  

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Sherrill Roland’s interdisciplinary practice deals with concepts of innocence, identity, and community; reimagining their social and political implications in the context of the American criminal justice system. For more than three years, Roland’s right to self-determination was lost to a wrongful incarceration. After spending ten months in prison for a crime he was later exonerated for, he returned to his artistic practice, which he now uses as a vehicle for self-reflection and an outlet for emotional release. Converting the haunting nuances of his experiences into drawings, sculptures, multimedia objects, performances, and participatory activities, Roland shares his story and creates space for others to do the same, illuminating the invisible costs, damages, and burdens of incarceration. Roland is an assistant professor of Studio Art in Sculpture at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. https://www.sherrillroland.com/

Kylie Seltzer is an architectural historian, educator, digital humanist, and community builder whose work focuses on dismantling white supremacy and creating a more equitable world. An award winning scholar and teacher, Kylie is committed to using her humanistic background and historical knowledge to solve today’s problems. Her doctoral research analyzed the ways that architecture and built forms were used to popularize race theory in the 19th century. This pseudoscience represents the foundation for white supremacist ideologies of the present day. Seltzer is currently the Zietlow Postdoctoral Fellow at Carolina Public Humanities. https://kylierjseltzer.com/

Dr. Bharathi Zvara is an Associate Professor in the Department of Maternal and Child Health (MCH) in the Gillings School of Global Public Health. She is a developmental psychologist whose main research interest is in the emotional and behavioral development in young children. A central focus of her research is to characterize the effects of early-life adversity and trauma and identify the biological and behavioral mechanisms through which early childhood experiences impact growth and development. Her work documents the key role of the family system, responsive caregiving practices, and the broader environment in which children live and develop. Her goal is to produce translatable knowledge to inform policies and programs that ultimately improve the lives of children and families. https://sph.unc.edu/adv_profile/bharathi-j-zvara-phd/