Alex Perrin Tananbaum (They/Them/Theirs)
English and Studio Art double major

​​My artwork explores themes of culture, health, the body, and memory. My body and the bodies of my parents often fail and must be modified with titanium, staples, and dissolvable stitches — after being documented by MRIs and X-Rays. While we wait for the next injury, I inhabit a strange cultural space, full of questions I do not know how to ask. Here, I explore these themes through relief prints overlaid with medical imagery, animal skins modified with man-made elements, artist books, and a puzzle. 

Artist website: alexptarts.squarespace.com

A series of relief prints on paper featuring images of the Saxonville Mill in Framingham, MA and the El Cerrito Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) station
Alex Tananbaum
Conversations at Saul’s, 2025
Relief print on paper, artist’s MRIs and X-Rays on film

Thirty prints are arranged in lines of ten, referencing the number of weeks in a Carleton academic year. There are two print designs: the first is the Saxonville Mill in Framingham, MA, where my father grew up; the second is the El Cerrito Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) station, a ten minute walk from where I was raised. Overlaid on top of the prints are images from the MRIs and X-Rays I underwent last summer.

This print work explores the health issues in my family, and how I am sometimes afraid of talking about those issues with my father. It derives its name from the Jewish deli near my home, a place where I feel connected to my Ashkenazi Jewish heritage, and things feel easier to talk about.

Painting of an elderly woman overlaid with handwriting
Alex Tananbaum
For this I went to college (portrait of Great-Great), 2025
Gouache on wooden puzzle

Jewish families love to talk, but difficult things are often talked around or ignored. I was very lucky to know my great grandmother, but she died when I was fairly young. As I have grown older, there are many things I have wanted to ask her. For this piece, I interviewed family members about their memories of the Holocaust and current opinions on Israel. I used this project to talk about the things my family historically does not talk about and put together the pieces of my family history.

Taxidermied bird adorned with rhinestones
Taxidermied rodent adorned with magenta embroidery floss
Taxidermied rodent adorned with rhinestones and magenta embroidery floss

Alex Tananbaum
Roadkill!!! I–III, 2024–ongoing
Found animals, rhinestones, embroidery floss

I found these animals already dead, then preserved them using Borax and salt. In the places where feathers and fur fell off as I learned this process, I added rhinestones and embroidery floss. The surgery I had most recently included screwing a titanium plate into my bones. Roadkill!!! externalizes the internal modifications many disabled people need.

Special thanks to Mei Jardstrom, Marynel Ryan Van Zee, and the Student Fellowship Office.