| About the
Exhibition
Opening Reception: Sunday, February 24,
2- 4 pm
"Views beyond our Borders" features
work from the following InLiquid artists (click on names to see
their InLiquid artist pages):
Peter
Doyle, Todd
Swimmer, Jim
Abbott, Anastasia
Simone, Rachel
Zimmerman
The Community Arts Center is pleased to present
a photographic exhibition "Views from Beyond Our Borders"
from Sunday, February 24 to Friday, March 22, 2002. The exhibition
presents the work of seven photographers, each of whom has worked
on projects outside the United States. The exhibition is organized
as selected groupings of each extended project to offer viewers
a range of approaches to work while communicating a sense of developed
theoretical vision.
The seven projects display broad affinities
to subject matter, from Peter Doyle's intimate portraits of Turkish
earthquake victims to Rachel Zimmerman's tonally rich architectural
studies in Brazil and Tokyo. The images also reveal a range of
aesthetic sensitivities, from Jim Abbott's cool Berlin urbanscapes
to Laurence Salzmann's intuitive portraits in Cuban wrestling
clubs. All of the work shows the photographers' commitment and
connection to far away, often exotic, locations, including Anastasia
Simone's personal spiritual journey through northern India, Todd
Swimmer's African aesthetics exploration in Cameroon, and Benedict
Tisa's cultural immersion in the Ivory Coast.
As curator of this exhibition, there are many
people to thank for helping bring "Views Beyond Our Borders"
to reality. First I must thank Debby Yoder for offering the
opportunity, encouragement, and humor for this exhibition to
exist. Next I would thank the photographers, Jim, Peter, Laurence,
Anastasia, Benedict, and Rachel for creating such outstanding
work, offering their prints, proving the value of dedication,
and revealing these distant worlds through unique vision; I
am proud to be their colleague. I would also like to thank Diane,
Lora, Candy, Bob, Florence and Maura for their advice and help,
without fanfare, without which this exhibit and CAC would not
be as great as it is. And thanks to Nancy, Heather and Rose
for their expertise and time hanging the exhibit, beautifully
and thoughtfully. Finally, thanks to all the CAC volunteers,
whose unsung work and little touches enable wonderful things
to happen.
Todd Swimmer
James Abbott
Sightlines: Berlin 1998-1992
These photographs, by Philadelphia photographer
James Abbott, are selected from Sightlines: Berlin 1998-1992,
a series of photographs documenting the urban landscape of East
and West Berlin, Germany, just before and after German reunification.
The project, is part documentary, part impressionistic essay,
as he trained his camera on these streets, neighborhoods, architecture
and overall landscape surrounding Eastern and Western Berlin's
most famous architectural site-The Berlin Wall.
Abbott first visited Berlin in 1988 seeking out the unfamiliar.
He worked in the Western sector known as Kruezberg, and found
subjects charged with history and metaphor, translating these
intangibles into formally composed pictures. The opening and demolition
of the wall in 1989 marked the end of communism in East Germany,
but the absence of the wall left an equally chilling effect on
the urban environment, inspiring Abbott to make six more trips
between 1989 and 1992. Working in both West and East Berlin, he
compiled a photographic portrait of the neighborhoods near the
Wall in the newly unified city.
The photographs emphasize the visual symbolism in spaces, streets,
and buildings that long represented the harsh political and social
divisions between Eastern and Western Europe. Abbott's cool, color
photographs are carefully composed with details of an intense
awareness of physical space and place.
James Abbott is a professional photographer
living in Ardmore, PA, and he owns a studio and gallery at 231
North 3rd St. in Philadelphia.
Peter Doyle
Damage, Earthquake Site
These photographs were taken in Duzce,
Turkey. Duzce, halfway between Istanbul and Ankara, was the epicenter
of the second major earthquake in the fall of 1999. Eight months
later, Doyle visited the region with a medical team from Philadelphia
called MEDISM. Thousands of people were still living in tent camps
with varying degrees of support.
Doyle's revealing and intimate portraits of
these displaced citizens living in tent camps reveal the fragile
humanity of people making the best of a terrible situation. As
an outsider, Doyle miraculously develops a trust with most of
his subjects whose lives have become unusually vulnerable; this
takes skill, experience, and a genuine interest in and concern
for people's lives. Doyle instills a dignity in his portraits,
combining thoughtful documentation with exceptional aesthetic
sensitivity. It is a delicate balancing act to document hardship
and disaster with a creative expression that engages the viewer.
Peter Doyle is a professional photographer living
in Philadelphia.
Laurence Salzmann
La Lucha / The Struggle
Laurence Salzmann's photographs are selected
from his series La Lucha / The Struggle, about Cuban youth culture
in wrestling training clubs in the city of Santiago de Cuba. The
images capture an overall sense of tension mixed with playful
enthusiasm, in which there is a fusion of youthful bodies in intense
movement.
He spends days and weeks in these clubs, talking
with the youth, listening to the elders, and observing the dynamics
of these athletic enclaves. By documenting the daily life of these
young Cuban wrestlers, Salzmann gives viewers a renewed perspective
of Cuban culture, one that differs from popular stereotypes of
the nation. The images are a symbolic interpretation of the lives
of the boys and young men who face a physical challenge in the
midst of the psychological struggle of daily life.
The images can be disconcerting at times. The
camera tilts; lighting is emphasized, and physicality is visually
enhanced as if responding to glimpsed moments. But Salzmann looks
deep into the visual symbolism revealed in the details of community
life, forging connections to broader concerns.
Laurence Salzmann is a documentary photographer
and filmmaker living in Philadelphia.
Anastasia Simone
India, 2000
Anastasia Simone traveled in northern India
in 2000 on a "Yatra", or spiritual journey. Her pictures
reveal a very personal response to being immersed in an "other"
culture that is steeped in aspiring humanity. Her colorful images
of both Indian and Tibetan communities show intuitive connections
to people and intimate places. Simone describes the work as a
"very personal documentation of (her) Yatra."
She writes: India was life with its covers blown off; it assaulted
my mind, shattered my nerves and offered no buffer to the harshness
of life. I felt the abject conditions of life in the distant "Third
World". Personal circumstances surrounding the trip furthered
the challenges of keeping my insides together when external circumstances
were shaky at best.
Despite its maddening chaos I found India to be a world formed
from deep layers of spiritual riches. I began to see the outer
world as an illusion and rely on purely internal strength. I spent
hours in temples meditating, shedding years of old belief systems
and fears. These photographs are but a glimpse of what I saw when
I came up for air. They reflect the connection I felt to humanity
as I traversed this magical, beautiful and ultimately real world
that changed my perception of life forever.
Anastasia Simone is a photographer and
artist living in Los Angeles.
Todd Swimmer
Cameroon, 2000
Todd Swimmer's photographs made in western
Cameroon are part of an ongoing project photographing mixes of
aesthetic traditions in contemporary Africa.
Western Cameroon is the Anglophone region of
Cameroon in a country that is predominantly Francophone, an unusual
split colonial history. The region has a rich history of influential
"Chieferies" that continue to define many people's identities.
The climate and geography is quite lush, with people being known
for their industriousness in agriculture and trade. The food and
music is fantastic.
It is interesting to see the subtle details
of cultural influence, from indigenous and colonial architecture
to European beer advertisements and painted beauty salon signs
showing urban hair cuts to traditional community ceremonies and
confrontation with the trappings of globalization. The photographs
are documents filled with subtle detail while expressing aesthetic
calm and intended dignity toward the subjects. Swimmer looks for
the connections between seemingly exotic cultures and places with
the familiar activities of daily life that span distant lifestyles.
Todd Swimmer is a photographer and teacher living
in Philadelphia. He is also the curator of this exhibition.
Benedict Tisa
Ivory Coast, 1972-1975
This work, made over twenty-five years
ago, documents Tisa's experience as a Peace Corps volunteer in
the Ivory Coast, in west Africa. Barely ten years after independence,
Ivory Coast was a bright light in Africa, a country rich in culture
and environmental resources, politically stable, with a developing
economy. Tisa's experience focused on the development, production
and implementation of methods and materials for population, health
and rural development related programs, emphasizing the need for
programs to be culturally appropriate and sustainable.
Tisa's images are direct and intuitive responses
to cultural immersion. They can evoke memories, curiosity, misconceptions,
and revelation. While the people and places in his pictures are
connected to specific ways of life in West Africa, it is interesting,
particularly for those with experience in the region, to see both
the timeless ways of deep rooted cultures and the stark changes
from the 1970's to today.
Benedict Tisa is an artist and international
community education facilitator and consultant living in Washington,
D.C.
Rachel Zimmerman
Architectural Studies, 1991
These images are a selection of isolated
architectural studies made in Brasilia, Brazil and Tokyo, Japan
in 1991. Rachel Zimmerman's intimate images of architectural detail
studies in Brasilia and Tokyo are displayed as delicate, intimate
prints with rich tonal subtleties. The small groups of prints
express a compositionally aware vision of modern architectural
details as personal objects of perception.
There is a strong history of photographers being
drawn to modernist and contemporary architecture as subject matter
for visual interpretation. Zimmerman pays distinct attention to
angular lines, patterns, textural surfaces, interplay of light
and shadow, and spatial proportion. The often hard-edged building
designs are transformed into richly tonal, impressionistic gems.
Rachel Zimmerman is a designer, photographer
and arts activist living in Philadelphia. Check out her arts community
website at www.inliquid.com .
All notes are by Todd Swimmer with information supplied by the
photographers.
About the Center
The Community Art Center was founded in
1948 by a group of local artists. During its long and successful
history the Center has continually pursued excellence in all areas
of its programs.
The Community Arts Center presents an annual
exhibition schedule which includes artists of local, regional,
and national prominence. All exhibits at the Center are free and
open to the public. They provide an excellent opportunity to see
and appreciate the arts in a familiar, local setting.
Integral to the Center's program are lectures,
bus trips and an annual trip abroad. All of these activities are
planned to foster the understanding and appreciation of the arts
in the local community and beyond.
The Community Arts Center is located on
a one hundred year old estate in Wallingford, Pennsylvania. The
Main Building and other buildings on the property provide ample
classroom space for numerous courses. The Center has a state-of-the-art
ceramic arts studio, a fully equipped photography darkroom, a
printmaking studio, and a well-equipped studio for jewelry making.
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