Grace Adduci (b. 2001 St Charles, IL) received her BFA in Photography and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in May of 2024. Using both photography and video, Grace incorporates her extensive music background throughout her visual arts. Her work displays abjection, as she depicts her personal experiences to a maximum degree.
In her most recent project for her senior BFA show exhibition, Grace mixed her music background with her photography skills. Her project consisted of her photography work throughout her 4 years at UIUC (a mix of band photography, fashion, portraits, etc.) printed on vinyl record sleeves, presented in a wooden crate that acted as a “record crate”. Her photos acted as album covers, hinting at how music plays into her visual work. She also made a video that included camcorder videos of her nights out at house shows, reemphasizing the connection between music, photography, and video that makes her work uniquely hers. Grace wanted to present her work in this fashion to promote an interactive play with her audience through the physicality as they flip through the vinyls as they listen to the background video.
In her past “nightlife” series, Grace used party photos to portray the idea of feeling alone, even when surrounded by a crowd of people. She explored the world of nightlife at college; using a film camera to create a messy and mechanical perspective, it magnified the feeling of pure bliss surrounding the people of the night. This project also explored the horrors that are involved with these “unforgettable” party nights, such as: forgetting the people you met under the influence, the messy and unsafe walks home, and the sickening downside alcohol can have on your body the following morning.
For her upcoming works, Grace plans to continue to work with a mixture of video and photography, both digital and film. While furthering the exploration of how music and photography go hand and hand, Grace plans to use audio and video to provoke more emotion from her audience. She will continue to visually document her journal entries and use written language to capture her innermost thoughts. Grace hopes to evoke a feeling of connection and understanding from her audience, just like how she felt when she performed music for others.