PALIMPSEST: LAYERS OF TIME at the Sandy Spring Museum April 1 – July 29, 2017
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These photo-collages are an unsentimental look at local cultural history. Focusing on specific sites, my artwork documents how the use of these locations changes over time. Changes reflect evolving attitudes towards race, ethnicity, and gender. Examining how our social history progresses and transforms is an important component of my work.
This work was created during an artist residency at the Sandy Spring Museum and examines ten locations in the Sandy Spring, Maryland area. This is the first time I have created photo-collages that explore an area that was until recently primarily rural. I blend archival and contemporary photographs, along with historical news-papers, maps, advertisements, ephemera, and text into one final image for each site. Using layers of various opacities, I convey a sense that the past never goes away entirely.
“18035 Georgia Avenue, Olney, Maryland – 1917/2016,” explores the evolution of a family business that operated from 1885 to 2004. Beginning as Finneyfrock’s blacksmith shop, it evolved into Finneyfrock’s Power Equipment and Welding Company. Currently, Domino’s Pizza and Al Sospiro Trattoria operate at this location. This photo-collage blends a 1917 photograph with today’s scene. My own writing, a hand-made cake dish, 1956 receipt, 1999 advertisement, and a 1967 patent document provides evidence of the site’s changing uses.
One Sandy Spring piece has been installed as public art outside Roots Market, 16800 Georgia Avenue, Olney. Passersby learned about the evolution of this site from a dairy farm into today’s shopping center. The power of these photo-collages increases when they are installed in the location depicted and made accessible to the public.
A unifying thread in all my photography is an exploration of time and change. The passing of time is something we experience in our daily lives. We watch cities, suburbs, and rural areas evolve and change as a result of shifting societal values, desires, government actions, and market forces. The past coexists and informs the present.
Exhibition Review – Remembrance of Things Past by Gina Gallucci-White
To view a list of my sources click here.