Are We There Yet?

Curated by
Dawoud Bey

March 28 - May 3 2008

Opening Reception
Friday 3.28.08, 5 - 8 pm
artist talk @ 6 pm

     Americans have tended to take their ability to move freely through the world for granted. This ability to enact ones own mobility at leisure defines in some way an indelible aspect of the archetypal American character. To get in one's car and "hit the road" as a form of leisurely wanderlust has long been a part of the popular construct of the American leisure ideal. It is apparent, however, that this ability to move freely through the world as an act of leisure is not a privilege that extends to all quarters, and even Americans are finding increasing intrusions into their travel routines are now imposed by both the present national security dictates along with the rising cost of gasoline. But still American's penchant for casual wanderlust persists as a kind of psychic birthright. For others the act of travel and moving from place to place can be a much more complex experience, enacted for any number of reasons, of which pleasure might be the least of them. Whether to escape political persecution or to better one's station and opportunities, a vast number of people are in movement from place to place for reasons of a more urgent and imperative nature.

     The camera itself has a long history of being used as a kind of passport. Whether used simply to make a closer examination of things and circumstances that may be relatively close at hand, or to provide a reason to set off for distant locations in search of known or unknown experiences or information, the camera provides a ready means to bring what is close even closer or of bridging considerable geographical and experiential distance. Often, this desire to confront the unknown becomes, in and of itself, the rationale for the photographer's work. On the other hand, there may be some foreknowledge that the photographer has about a particular place that he/she wants to bring to a wider audience. This desire to venture out from home may, in fact, also be motivated by a desire to re-establish just what and where home is in relation to ones personal history, since in the case of immigration or voluntary and imposed exile the notion of home may not be a singular and fixed notion. Often the journeying out from the seemingly familiar reveals information that gives the lie to the reassuring sense of familiarity we had in the places more close at hand.

     The impetus for this exhibition Are We There Yet is to examine through photo and video-based work the ways in which a shifting sense of place is visualized through a broad range of material and conceptual strategies. The exhibition challenges any easy sense of just where "there" is in the physical, geographical, political, and psychic landscape.

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Alan Cohen
Christine DiThomas
Aron Gent
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Surendra Lawoti
Curtis Mann
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Adriana Rios

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