South Philly (Jehovah's Witnesses), 2002 (negative); 2003 (print)Zoe Strauss, American
Chromogenic print
Image: 6 5/16 x 10 1/16 inches (16 x 25.6 cm) Sheet: 7 15/16 x 10 3/8 inches (20.2 x 26.4 cm)
Purchased with funds contributed by Theodore T. Newbold and Helen Cunningham, 2003
2003-104-7
Zoe Strauss @ Philadelphia Museum of Art
January - March 2012
Zoe Strauss Under I-95 is a mid-career retrospective of the acclaimed photographer’s work and the first critical assessment of her ten-year project to exhibit her photographs annually in a space beneath a section of Interstate-95 in South Philadelphia. Strauss’s subjects are broad but her primary focus is on working-class America. Many of her pictures depict down-and-out people and landscapes, offering a poignant, troubling portrait of contemporary American life.
Strauss (American, born 1970) states that her ambition is “to create an epic narrative that reflects the beauty and struggle of everyday life.” Between 2001 and 2010, her I-95 exhibitions took place on a Sunday in early May. A print was affixed to each side of eighty-four columns in a space the size of a football field. Visitors walked slowly from column to column as they viewed the photographs. The processional nature of the experience underscored the paradoxical setting: an abandoned urban space that bears a certain elegance thanks to the grid of columns that structures a visual experience in classical perspective. Strauss’s installations transformed this site into a viable and vital public space. Many of the images depict people and places from the surrounding neighborhoods, similar districts in other American cities, as well as suburban and rural places in between.
Untrained as a photographer or artist, Strauss nevertheless founded the Philadelphia Public Art Project in 1995 with the objective of exhibiting art in nontraditional venues. She turned to the camera in 2000 as the most direct instrument to represent her chosen subjects. In 2006, Strauss participated in the Whitney Biennial and in 2008 she published her first book, America.
Curator
Peter Barberie • The Brodsky Curator of Photographs, Alfred Stieglitz Center
Location
Berman and Stieglitz Galleries, ground floor
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More: Art Community Conversations - Arts Initiatives in Philadelphia
Fridays at 6:30 pm on the following dates:
January 14th (2011), with Philly Stake and photographer Zoe Strauss
Location: Alter Gallery (Gallery 176), First floor, Modern and Contemporary Wing
Free after Museum admission
Join a conversation around one of Pistoletto’s mirrored tables, shaped in the contours of the Caribbean and Mediterranean Seas, and learn more about community-based arts initiatives in Philadelphia. Members of innovative arts organizations basekamp, Art Sanctuary (in conversation with Aaron Levy, Executive Director and Chief Curator of Slought Foundation), and Philly Stake (with acclaimed photographer Zoe Strauss) will lead informal conversations outlining their vision, history, and current projects as well as discuss their efforts to diversify the arts landscape of the city.
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Friday's Special: 1/2 Price Admission to the Philadelphia Museum of Art courtesy of PMA & Philebrity.com
Offer good on Friday, January 14th, from 10 a.m. to 8:45 p.m.
Click Here For Details