2017 Menschel Fellowship Exhibition
Held January 31 – February 16, 2017 on 2 floors of the Foundation Building.
This annual exhibition displays works related to the Benjamin Menschel Fellowships granted to selected Cooper Union students to further work on projects related to art, architecture, design and engineering.
Danil Ashtaev A’17 traveled to Siberia where he explored the lands around and within Lake Baikal which is the deepest and oldest water reservoir in the world. This reservoir is larger than all 5 of the American Great Lakes. Olkhon Island lies with the lake. He explored and photographed the dramatic landscape that includes geological formations, wide open skies, and flora that is very different from what is found in the U.S. Danil got to know a local shaman and learned about the myths and beliefs of indigenous people who are the Buryat people.
Sarah Schmitt A’17 and Anamika Singh A’17 journeyed to Burma to study a prison site that played an important role in colonial history. They went to in Port Blair of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands located between the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea. The prison, Kala Pani, was built by the British in 1896 to house political prisoners that were brought there from India. These first prisoners were resisting colonization of India. The siting of the prison on an island that could be viewed from a nearby island allowed the British soldiers to oversee the prison activities from a comfortable distance. The more direct supervision of the prisoners was performed by Indian people loyal to the British. Through a combination of photographs, maps, charts and illustrations, Sarah and Anamika, illustrated how the topography and the prison architecture helped intimidate the prisoners and allowed the prison keepers to easily view all prison activities. The illustrations that they created where the viewer can see what the British saw when they looked across the water to the penal colony and what the prisoners could see when they look toward the island occupied by the British was very interesting. The prison remained active for about 100 years. It was destroyed by the Tsunami of 2004, and the land is being reclaimed by local vegetation.
 Sarah Schmitt A’17 and Anamika Singh A’17 |
 Anamika Singh A’17 |
 |
 |
Jenny Hsiao and Hui Rong Liu traveled to the archipepago in the Pacific Nortwest to discover how salmon are harvested from the sea.
 |