Shadowplay Exhibition Showcases Works of Transgressive Photography
An exhibition of transgressive photography is on view at the Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College August 10 through December 8, 2013. Shadowplay: Transgressive Photography from the Hood Museum of Art includes photographs from the mid-twentieth century onward that startle, disturb, and cause one to question. Two professors who teach photography in the Studio Art Department at Dartmouth College, Virginia Beahan and Brian Miller, have organized this exhibition, which looks at the Hood Museum of Art's collection through a particular lens: works that cross boundaries and perhaps change the way we view the world.
Related programming this autumn includes a gallery talk and reception with the curators on Tuesday, October 15, at 4:30 p.m.
"Shadowplay is the result of the best kind of collaboration for a campus museum," said Michael Taylor, Director of the Hood Museum of Art, "one that brings together the expertise and perspective of the faculty and the richness of the museum's collection for the purpose of introducing new ways of thinking about visual culture to students and the public."
The subjects of the 53 works in this exhibition range from the improbable to the downright disturbing, in the realms of the psychosexual, sociocultural, and environmental. As Beahan and Miller note, photography has been pushing boundaries ever since its invention in the 1800s, and they were drawn to these transgressive examples for the freedom from convention and the elevation of technique that they represent. The exhibition features photographs by such artists as Fiona Foley, Tierney Gearon, Luis Gispert, Susan Meiselas, Gary Schneider, and Francesca Woodman.
"I want people who see this exhibit to be open to new ideas of beauty, more critical ways of looking at our culture, and to just see something surprising," said Miller. "We wanted to create an exhibition which made people think, and encouraged people to take more chances in their work or in their life."
The exhibition is generously supported by Rona and Jeff Citrin, Dartmouth College Class of 1980, and the William Chase Grant 1919 Memorial Fund.