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May Issue 2006
The Light Factory in Charlotte, NC, Offers New Exhibitions
The Light Factory @ Spirit Square Galleries in Charlotte, NC, will present several new exhibitions including: Photography & the Artist Book: A Survey of Approaches from the US and Abroad, curated by Barb Tetenbaum and Memoirs of a Single Mother, featuring works by Cordelia Williams, on view from May 5 through July 6, 2006, in the Knight Gallery and My Family, Our Stories, featuring works by English as a Second Language students of The Light Factory, under the direction of Melissa Lukenbaugh, on view from May 5 through June 29, 2006, in the Middleton-McMillan Gallery.
Barb Tetenbaum is currently head of Book Arts
at Oregon College of Art and Craft in Portland, one of the few
places in the US where you can get a BFA in Book Arts. She has
taught workshops and classes around the globe, including as a
Fulbright Scholar teacher in the Czech Republic.
The Multnomah County Library in Portland Oregon is now exhibiting
a 25 year retrospective of Tetenbaum's work. Her work exists in
collections around the world and her curated exhibits have continually
included internationally known book artists. She has curated the
exhibit at TLF to show the range of technical and conceptual uses
of photography in the contemporary artist book.
An "artist book" can be defined as a book (or book-like
object) which is conceived of by an artist as a work of art, and
is experienced as static or time-based sequence in the hands of
the reader. The book is a natural medium for the photographer
who often has developed a suite of photographs or an "essay"
out of a particular photo session, and wishes to show this in
such a setting. A further desire to include text points the photographed
towards the book form as an obvious space in which to organize
the two. But unless the photographer has the fortune to earn the
attention of an established publisher, there have been few perfect
means for self-publication.
The 40 + artist books in this exhibit are organized to illuminate
the conceptual approaches to artist books which employ the photograph:
the photo essay, photo illustration, collage, abstraction, documentation,
and others.
Cordelia Williams has always been an artist
who brings a sense of magical realism to her visual art. When
she experiences reality other things enter the room and consequently
onto her photographs. She starts with a photographic capture printed
in black and white, and then embellishes reality with hand coloring
techniques of a natural trained painter. A beautiful child becomes
a mermaid through her hand coloring and a teenage boy is suddenly
seen with angst lines of color and energy patterns through his
hair.
Surrounding the book is an exhibit of large scale reproductions
of the hand colored photographs in the book along with other artist
books and self portrait works by Williams. Collectively, the early
self portraits, excerpts from Camilla the Fairy Cat, Mermaid
Book, and Memoirs of a Single Mother depict 35 years
of William's life acting as a retrospective of her ability to
bring authenticity to life through her own inventive imagination
a photographer, book artist, and mother.
The Light Factory created My Family, Our Stories to serve English as a Second Language (ESL) students in the Charlotte Mecklenburg School System. This project helps prepare youth for participation in a global community through teaching basic photography skills while improving communication and literacy skills. My Family, Our Stories contributes to the artistic and intellectual growth of ESL students and gives the Charlotte community a photographic glimpse into their lives.
My Family, Our Stories 2005 - 2006 is collaboration between The Light Factory and the ESL departments at Carmel Middle School, East Mecklenburg High School and Waddell High School. The project is funded by a grant from Arts Teach, a partnership of Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools, the Arts and Science Council and the NC Arts Council.
Countries of origin include: Mexico, Jordan, South Korea, Somalia, Nicaragua and Russia.
For further information check our NC Institutional Gallery listings, call the gallery at 704/333-9755 or at (www.lightfactory.org).
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