The Crimson’s Alternative Honorees for ’05

ALEXANDER L. PASTERNACK ’05

In his four years at Harvard, Alex L. Pasternack ’05, who is also a Crimson Arts editor, has ranged farther in the arts world than just about anyone else. The run-down of his activities here gives the impression that if he has a single goal, it has been to stretch and test his creative abilities in every conceivable forum.

But Pasternack is the first to admit that he’s no virtuoso, at least not in all of his disparate activites, which includes playwriting, acting, music, poetry, literary criticism, dance, drawing, performance art, and freestyle rap, as well as a number of unclassifiable artistic hijinks.

”I’m hardly talented,” he says. “I’m really a generalist, an amateur.”

The modesty belies a confident charm: Pasternack is a pale and lanky guy and exudes the kind of disaffected cool that tags him as a hipster. In conversation, however, he is warm and friendly, if a bit distracted. His eyes, like his words, tend to wander with restless attention.

Pasternack began his Harvard theatrical career in a production of Anton Chekhov’s “Three Sisters.” There, Pasternack made connections that would eventually inspire him to write two plays. The first, “The Rehearsal,” which, Pasternack says, was “still being written” ten minutes before its first performance, is the story of a bumbling theater group putting on a play.

The second, “The Apartment of Homeland Reality,” debuted this semester in the Adams Pool Theater and told the story of a family on a reality TV show; the set included a camera, which projected the show’s “live broadcast” onto a television alongside the on-stage action.

He’s also been a leader of three different campus bands: The Elegant Touch; the bizarre Information Wrecknology, which debuted at Arts First last year and which Pasternack describes as a “selectric hip-rok band that came back from the future to destroy your computer;” and his newest project, “The Motivational Speakers.”

Despite the unfailingly kooky nature of his projects, Pasternack is serious about breaking down the barriers in Harvard’s art world. Last year, he founded Present!, an “ob-literary” magazine-turned-art-collective which Pasternack calls a “life band.” While they do produce a magazine—the premier issue was released last year and there will be a second release this month—the bulk of their activity involves staging “happenings” on campus.

One such happening was “the Cube.” The group built a 12-foot cubical frame, covered it with red-and-blue fabric, and marched it down Mass. Ave. blaring music from boom boxes. The many-legged cube then wandered the Yard before stopping in front of the Science Center, where members ordered a dozen pizzas and invited passers-by to come hang out inside the mobile party room.

At this year’s Arts First, Present! will be showcasing something called a “wonder cabinet” in the Adams Art Space.

Before Present!, Pasternack was no stranger to artistic groups at Harvard; he was a poetry editor for the Advocate, as well as a Crimson Arts editor. While he is quick to mention his respect for the many talented artists in organizations like the Advocate and the Signet, he often calls for a less “stuffy” attitude among the Harvard art community.

”A lot of the artists at Harvard,” he says, “are incredibly open-minded and talented, but I think that the mechanisms that exist can sometimes be kind of closed.”

In the end, Pasternack reiterates that he is simply an “amateur” and a “collaborator.”

His modesty belies a deeper passion. If everybody had Pasternack’s artistic bravery and creativity, the world would be a very confusing, but much more interesting, place to live.

—Michael A Mohammed

BEA A. CAMACHO ’05

Over the past few years, Harvard students may have witnessed a person crochet herself into a cocoon, attended an art exhibit in an inflatable gallery, or tried on some gloves with three-foot long fingers. If so, they are among the individuals who have encountered the innovative work of Roberta Beatriz “Bea” A. Camacho ’05, one of Harvard’s most talented visual artists.

Camacho, who is also a Crimson editor, left her home in the Philippines at age eleven for High Wycombe, England, and moved to the United States to attend Harvard. This transience in her surroundings led naturally to the central theme of her art.

“My work explores isolation and the situations that create it,” Camacho says. “My experience of having left home informs and inspires this work,” which she says “aims to address physical, emotional and mental separation.”

While art relating to such personal topics has the potential to come off as self-indulgent and hackneyed, Camacho’s is neither. Much of the poignancy in her work stems from its originality.

For example, Camacho recently crocheted herself into a large red cocoon over eleven straight hours, without food, drink, or even a bathroom break. The entire performance was videotaped, and will be played in real-time during the showing of “Unplaced,” the VES senior thesis exhibition, which includes Camacho’s sculpture, video, performance, sound, photography, and installation works for her thesis.

However, those who want to see all of Camacho’s art, including the cocoon video, would be well-advised to attend the exhibition soon after it opens on May 5. Her final Harvard project involves storing all her work in large cardboard boxes, piece by piece, while it is all still on display. Every night or two, she will remove something from the exhibit, place it in a box, and seal it closed, until all that remains visible are the labeled boxes. The end result is a final exploration of the theme of isolation that is so prevalent throughout her work.

“There is a withdrawal that is signaled by acts of hiding, putting away, and sealing, and a rejection of external contact that is demonstrated by cardboard boxes,” she says.

Throughout her work, Camacho considers “mediated forms of communications, connections, disconnections, privacy, absence and transience.” This is well exemplified in her “extremely elongated gloves and sleeve-like sculptures.” While her friends say that the long-fingered gloves could create a popular fashion trend, Camacho focuses on conveying a sense of disconnect and isolation.

“They could go on forever, but still don’t touch anything,” she says of the snake-like crocheted black fingers.

Her other works include a portable “Inflatable Museum” that she and Han Yu ’06 co-designed, created, and curated last February, as well as an “interactive fabric” she crafted last year from mohair and electroluminescent wire that lights up when touched.

During her time at Harvard, Camacho has shown her work in the Signet, the Carpenter Center, the Adams Artspace, the Lowell bell tower, and in the pages of The Advocate. After graduation, she hopes to move to New York City, where her work can find a whole new audience.

—Sam W. Teller

KEVIN B. HOLDEN ’05

Having taken between six and eight classes every semester would be an impressive achievement for any soon-to-be Harvard graduate. Add to that one unpublished novel, 14 published poems, three editorships on Harvard student literary publications, and fluency in four foreign languages, and you have a general idea of Kevin B. Holden ’05’s college career.

Holden, a Winthrop House resident and a literature concentrator, is a self-declared poet, and hopes to publish his own collection of poems within the next four years. “I am a poet, it is what I do the most,” says Holden, “poetry is the biggest part of me and it has always been a part of my life.”

Holden is the editor-in-chief of “The Gamut,” an annual poetry review which will be holding a student poetry reading during Arts First; he is a poetry board member of “The Advocate,” a literary magazine; and he is an editor of “Cinematic,” a film review magazine.

Apart from poetry, Holden is also interested in continental philosophy, which is why he chose to be a literature concentrator. “Although I have always felt more at home with poetry, I needed more help with philosophy,” he says. “I didn’t like how the philosophy department focuses on analytical studies, so I chose literature instead.”

Holden recently earned summa cum laude on his thesis, which combined his interests in literature, poetry, philosophy, and visual arts.

“It was very exciting,” he says, “I looked at the works of Samuel Beckett, [Robert] Ryman, and [Andy] Warhol, creating a thesis about visual and literary pieces mixed with philosophy. It was about death and negative dialectics, that which is unsayable.”

Holden’s fascination with language extends to foreign tongues as well, and he makes an effort to enjoy poems in their original form. He is especially interested in Russian literature, a preference he credits to a class he took his first year at Harvard.

“I took a freshman seminar on 20th Century Russian poetry. It absolutely blew me away. There has been so much suffering that there is a power and brilliance to this poetry unlike anything I had ever seen. I became obsessed with [Russian poetry] and learned Russian so that I could read it in its native text.”

This summer, Holden will pursue his interest in Eastern Europe by traveling there on a Radcliffe Fellowship.

“I am going to Russia to do some community service projects there and to meet poets. I will try to translate some things and write with the poets I meet. I really hope to learn from them.” His travel plans also include Poland and some destinations that are yet to be determined.

Holden also won the Harvard Cambridge Fellowship and intends to study at Cambridge University in England next fall. There he hopes to earn a master’s degree in philosophy through a program that synthesizes philosophy and literature, with which he will then pursue a career as a professor and poet. The only thing that might alter his path is his love of the circus, where he used to be a tightrope walker.

“I used to be in a circus over the summer while I was in high school. It would be nice to go back. I guess it’s wrapped up in my desire to be a kid again.”

—Carolyn A. Sheehan

LARA M. HIRNER ’05

“Oh—and I was an extra in ‘Fever Pitch.’”

“In what?”

“Fever Pitch.”

I nod knowingly, but I am not fooling my subject.

“It’s a movie.”

“Right.”

“Don’t worry. I haven’t even seen it yet.”

And so, the graceful Lara M. Hirner ’05 swoops in.

The new Farrelly Brother’s comedy is not, as it turns out, about music. I won’t bore you with further details. But, if the film doesn’t quite fit into Lara’s staggering lineup of musical and acting accomplishments, it’s the rare exception.

“I’ve been singing my whole life,” she says. “I grew up in a musical household. I was always doing shows, choir, everything I possibly could… In high school half of my schedule was music. I played in the String Ensemble, the Orchestra, I sang in the Choir and took composition and theory classes, was in all the musicals.”

If Lara has gotten to the stage where she doesn’t have time to see herself on the silver screen, it’s because she is too immersed in stage work.

Having elected a traditional liberal arts education over conservatory training, Lara arrived as a declared biochemistry major with plans for medical school.

“One assumed everyone at Harvard will be premed or prelaw,” she shrugs, “I thought I should be doing something ‘academic.’”

But after a trying first year—in which Lara struggled to balance four demanding “hard science” classes with her commitment to the University Choir and roles in several musicals—she decided it was time for a change.

“At the end of my freshman year I sat down with my proctor Noah S. Selsby to discuss, you know, my ‘premed aspirations.’ He said, ‘you can either spend your college experience being miserable and then go to med school where you’ll continue to be miserable, or you can spend your college time doing something you really love.’”

Lara opted out of misery. By the next semester, she enrolled herself in a special five year Masters program offered through the Music Department—in which a reduced course load (three half credits per semester) gave her more time to pursue private study and perform.

Lara has taken full advantage of the opportunities offered by the slightly relaxed schedule—although not to the exclusion of completing coursework and a thesis in Women’s Studies, with which she splits her joint concentration.

Lara has worked tirelessly in private training and in performance after performance in everything from operas to stage plays to commercial voice-overs, and garnered more lines on her resume than could be listed. They include major roles in “Candide,” “La Cenerentola,” “Into the Woods,” and “Pirates of Penzance;” solos at Forte! and Segue! (two concerts hosted by University President Laurence H. Summers in appreciation of excellence in the arts) and with the Harlem Boys’ Choir in Sanders Theater; singing with the Vox jazz quintet, the Harvard Choir and the Chorale Fellows of Memorial Church; and serving as an Undergraduate Representative to the Music Department.

Having already begun to expand to performances outside Harvard in venues ranging from weddings and religious services to jazz clubs, Lara is prepared to hit Boston or New York running.

“Whatever happens, I want to be able to say: I went for it. I tried.”

On May 8 at 2 p.m., Lara will be giving a farewell recital in Payne Hall—entitled “Blond(e?)” for her “signature” mane. She looks forward to reuniting for several numbers with some of the “mindbogglingly talented people” with whom she’s had the privilege of working here.

“I wanted to pay tribute,” she explains. “I didn’t want it to be just one big diva show.”

Lara’s entire extended family will also be in town to receive the tribute.

“My incredibly musical, incredible, incredible family,” she sighs. “They’re the ones who have always been pushing me to achieve the best that I can. They’ve been the cornerstone of everything I’ve done here.”

—Moira G. Weigel

JAE Y. KIM ’05

When rehearsing with others for an Arts First piece or a chamber music performance, violinist Jae Y. Kim ’05 is usually the one to get the music from the library. Known for both his talent and his good-natured dedication to the music, the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra (HRO) co-concertmaster has become a fixture of the orchestral music scene during his four years at Harvard.

Last year, Kim won the HRO’s prestigious concerto competition for his performance of “The Sibelius Violin Concerto,” further enhancing his already sterling reputation.

However, his strongest impact in classical music at Harvard has been, arguably, his influence on his peers.

“He has a certain persona,” says Kim’s blockmate and longtime performance partner Alison B. Miller ’05. “He’s a really friendly and lovable guy, but he can say ‘Guys, you need to practice that part,’ and people will take him really seriously.”

Anicia C. Timberlake ’05, another of Kim’s orchestral partners and blockmates, says she is constantly impressed by Kim’s deep knowledge of the music.

“If you’re just sitting around playing something he’ll come right in on the cello part or the viola part—even though he plays violin,” she says. “He pays attention to other people’s parts and always knows the music better than anyone else.”

“After half a rehearsal he’ll know exactly where every part comes in, where the key changes are. It’s amazing that he can know so much about a piece beyond his own particular part,” Miller says. “I don’t think that’s learned—I think it’s unique.”

Kim attributes his skills to a substantive musical education. Like many accomplished classical musicians, he got his start at a very young age, picking up the violin when he was less than four years old.

Kim’s friends describe him as a musical omnivore with wide-ranging tastes. In particular, he has an encyclopedic knowledge of rap lyrics.

“He knows more about rap than any person I know. He’s usually the one who makes playlists for parties,” Timberlake says.

Kim, a chemistry concentrator, is set on med school—but he says that the quality of the classical music scene will be a big factor in his choice of school. He will miss HRO.

“HRO is above the caliber of a lot of the community orchestras out there,” he says. “The stress level isn’t as high as it might be…we do it because we love music.”

Kim will be making three appearances at Arts First on Saturday, playing viola with a pair of quartets and violin with a third.

—Michael A. Mohammed

DUNCAN A. JOHNSON ’05

To hear Duncan A. Johnson ’05 tell it, it was an imaginary dinosaur that convinced him he wanted to spend his life making movies.

“I saw ‘Jurassic Park’ when I was 10,” the Visual and Environmental Studies (VES) concentrator says. “I was crying through the whole movie, but when it was done, I thought, ‘this is what I have to do.’”

So Johnson bought a camcorder, assembled his friends, and never looked back. He came to Harvard intent on studying film production; he would have chosen another school if Harvard hadn’t had the VES department.

Rather than cutting straight to filmmaking, Johnson spent his first year studying photography. He describes the “terribly rude awakening” of laying out all his semester’s photographs in front of his professor, only to have the professor trash every last one of them. Johnson went back to work, taking a thousand photographs over the last three weeks of the semester and ending up with ten he considered usable.

“It was like boot camp really,” he says of the ordeal. “It was scary at the time, but experiences like those really made me want to do it more in the end. It really inspired me and showed me the level of dedication this sort of work takes. You can never half-ass it.”

Johnson demonstrated that newfound dedication his junior year, when he wrote, shot, and edited a fifteen-minute film, “Junior Achiever,” the work of which he is most proud. “Last year was such a positive experience,” he says. “I was very happy with my film, very proud of it, and I got a very good reception for it.”

In “Junior Achiever,” a teenage slacker’s mom hires a lifestyle coach to get him out of the house. When she ends up sleeping with the coach, hilarity ensues. The film, like most of Johnson’s work at Harvard, is about his life and friends in South Texas, appealing to the same type of stoner ethos found in his favorite movie, “The Big Lebowski.”

As one of only a handful of film production concentrators, Johnson relished the opportunity to work closely with faculty members like former Visiting Professor in the VES department Hal Hartley, who taught Johnson to conquer his instinct to over-think his filmmaking, an instinct he calls the “smart-guy, Harvard syndrome.”

“He taught me that filmmaking is just like construction work, just like building a house,” Johnson says. “It’s a business with materials, deadlines, budgets, and so it’s not just the director catching inspiration. It’s the director busting his ass to get it in on time.”

Johnson is also a four-year classical DJ on WHRB, and his final show last Wednesday was a bittersweet reminder that his time at Harvard is almost up. Though he hasn’t finalized his plans for next year, he says he’d like to be a production assistant in New York or a director’s apprentice.

Johnson’s plans further down the road are more distinct: in fifteen years, he hopes to have a few feature films under his belt, with funding to do another one. “I want to be the next Hal Hartley,” he says. “Never made an Oscar, never made a ton of money at the box office. But he’s doing it how he wants to do it and getting by that way, so that’s how I see myself.” Until then, Johnson contents himself with the wonderful prospects of niche fame—no computer-animated dinosaurs allowed.

—Daniel J. Mandel