“Dude, we’ve been planning this for a while, haven’t we?” I asked a friend of mine, who prefers to remain anonymous. We’ll call him Keenan.

“Yeah, but we’re actually fucking doing it. We’re actually fucking going to the other side of the Hill,” he mused, lacing up his new Nikes like they were armor. Our pulses thumped in our throats and were drunk with the exotic lure of the place.

There’s a Hall & Oates song called “So Close” which contains these lyrics: So close, yet so far away. We believe in tomorrow, maybe more than today. Daryl Hall and John Oates often strike my steely heart, their words like a flint. But this time, the resulting spark lit a strong urge. RISD, our redheaded, sulky stepsister, had lurked in my skull for too long as just a murky ghost.

Who were these too-hip brooders? I had heard whispers, seen glimpses, but I wanted to crawl right down into the belly of the beast and understand our cigarette-wolfing, wanton pseudo-siblings that were so close, yet so far away. [Read more →]

Brown-RISD dual degree students will be exhibiting their work from February 9 to March 4 at the Hillel Gallery for their fourth annual show, BASKET|CASE. The show will feature over fifteen artists who’ve immersed themselves in the opportunities provided by both campuses to create unique works of art. In the words of RISD’s Associate Provost for Academic Affairs, David Bogen, “One of the things that schools are very good at doing is compartmentalizing knowledge and inquiry… One of our aims with the dual-degree program is to disrupt that compartmentalization.”

Last year’s show, Anisotropy, received rave reviews from the BDH and MainGreen.TV, which praised the collection for its “great creative variety” as it included pieces ranging from sculptures to films. If this is to be believed, then this year’s show will no doubt be just as exciting.

So come out tonight at 7:30 pm for the gallery opening at the Hillel. There will be free food and performance art!