Installation view (from left to right): Christine DiThomas, American Gothic series, 2001-2006, 15 digital prints; photography by Aron Gent, 2006.
Installation view (from left to right): photography by Surendra Lawoti, 2003-2004; Curtis Mann, mixed media, 2007.
Installation view (from left to right): Curtis Mann, mixed media, 2007; photography by Oscar Palacio, 2006-2007; photography by Surendra Lawoti, 2003-2004.
Howard Henry Chen, Kha, on his first trip to see the grounded Huey in Ho Chi Minh City (Me:”What?! Twenty-six years and you’ve never been here?” to which Kha replies: “What’s this stuff got to do with me?”, triptych, digital print, 2005.
Rula Halawani, Intimacy series, 6 digital prints, 2004.
Adriana Rios, video still from There Is No Time, 2005-2007.
Installation viewJuly 20 - September 28, 2008, Gallery 1
Are We There Yet?, a group exhibition of photo- and video-based work curated by photographer Dawoud Bey, examined the ways in which a shifting sense of place is visualized through a broad range of material and conceptual strategies. The works by featured artists Howard Henry Chen, Alan Cohen, Christine DiThomas, Aron Gent, Rula Halawani, Surendra Lawoti, Curtis Mann, Oscar Palacio, and Adriana Rios challenged any easy sense of just where “there” is in the physical, geographical, and psychic landscape.
The works’ emphasis on leisurely mobility responds to the archetypal American wanderlust. Yet, the works also ask viewers to consider the myriad motivations for movement, including persecution; the works propose that movement is enacted for any number of complex reasons. The camera itself becomes a type of passport, able to bridge considerable geographic and experiential differences. At times, the journey into the unknown might motivate a photographer’s work; at other moments, a photographer might deliberately want to communicate details about a specific place to an audience. Venturing out from home might involve questioning just what and where home is. Ultimately, the experience of movement challenges the notion of “home” as a singular and fixed location.
Are We There Yet? is a collaboration between GASP in Massachusetts and the Hyde Park Art Center and is made possible with partial support from Columbia College Chicago.
The photographs in Are We There Yet? by Christine DiThomas are supported in part by a Chicago Artist Assistance Program grant from the Department of Cultural Affairs for the City of Chicago.
Dawoud Bey is a professor of photography at Columbia College Chicago. His photographs have been exhibited internationally, and are included in the collections of museums throughout the United States and Europe. His critical writings and essays have been published in High Times, Hard Times: New York Painting 1967-1975, Third Text, After Image, C: International Contemporary Art, and other publications. His curatorial projects have been presented at the Addison Gallery of American Art, The Museum of Contemporary Photography and other institutions. Recently, a large monograph book of his work titled Class Pictures was published by Aperture along with a related exhibition, which is traveling to museums nationwide until 2010.
Reviews of this exhibition have been published in the following publications and websites:
Chicago Tribune
TimeOut Chicago
NewCity
Image: Curtis Mann, A New Understanding (Rock), 2007, c-print