Gallery Reviews

Tyler Durant

Candice Breitz: Love Story

The exhibition: Candice Breitz: Love Story is a video project that is meant to tell the stories of refugees who

would otherwise probably never be heard by the masses. In order to create such a project Candice Breitz

interviewed six different people who fled their countries in order to escape oppression, Sarah Ezzat Mardini from

Syria, Jose Maria Joao from Angola, Mamy Maloba Langa from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Shabeena

Franics Saveri, Luis Ernesto Nava from Venezuela, and Farah Abdi Mohamed from Somalia. They all told their

differing stories of escaping oppression in their interviews which were then depicted by actors Alec Baldwin and

Julianne Moore. After the actors depictions were shown the actual interviews of the refugees telling their stories

was shown. The use of big name actors is essentially what makes this project so important although they are not

the important part. The stories of these four people and what they had to do to escape oppression is really what is

on display here but Alec Baldwin and Julianne Moore catch people’s attention so that the stories can be told to a

much more broad audience. Without big name actors this project very well still would have been a success,

however, it may be looked over. At this time in our country, many people have a problem with refugees for

whatever reason, thus they tend to get ignored. The actors make it harder to ignore as most of the same people

who refuse to listen to the stories of the oppressed would still leave the house in order to watch a two hour movie

about almost anything else.

(Un)Expected Families

(Un)Expected Families is an exhibition currently on display at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston. It depicts all

different types of families through more than 80 photographs. As the name might suggest though, the families

shown through these photographs were not all “normal” families you might see starring in an old tv show (mother,

father, 2 or 3 kids). The exhibition instead looks to challenge the viewer to consider what a family is or what it

means to him or her. In order to challenge the viewer many different perspectives of family were shared and the

photographs on display showed a wide range of relationships, including multiple generations, romantic unions,

and alternative family structures. Some of the works on display did not show actual blood related family but

instead people who have formed such a close bond that they now consider each other family. One of these

photographs is, Gordon Parks, Ethel Shariff In Chicago, 1963. It depicts a group of all black woman dressed in all

white, what looks to be some sort of religious wear. The people within the image don’t look like they are family,

but that might be the point. Just because they don’t look like family and don’t fit the normal American description

of a family doesn’t mean the people within the photograph don’t consider each other family. On the other hand

there are also photographs such as Dorothea Lange’s Migrant Family which show what most would probably

consider a more traditional family, a mother, three children and a father. Despite the fact that one photograph

shows a traditional family of five while one shows an untraditional family of many grown woman both photographs

equally convey a sense of family because family isn’t something that comes pre-packed at a store and mass

distributed for everyone the same but instead family can be found in (un)expected places much like this exhibition

is meant to display.

Cheyenne River

Cheyenne River is a small collection of photographs that was on display at the Rhode Island Center for

Photographic Arts. The collection was made by Emily Schiffer at the Cheyenne River Reservation in South Dakota

where she founded and still runs a photography program for the youth. As the founder of this program she spends

a lot of her time around children thus she attempts to convey young girls revealing and negotiating their emotions,

desires and traumas through play in her photography series. This particular series shows young girls playing

around the Cheyenne River Reservation, both in the river and out of it in the surrounding junk (for lack of a better

word). In one particular photograph aptly named “Climb” the silhouette of a girl can be seen climbing a huge

rubber tire which might be my personal favorite of the series. This photograph stands out to me because not only

is it a well photographed scene but I feel as if it perfectly conveys the idea that Emily Schiffer was attempting to

portray with this series. The girl climbing the tire presumably is doing so on her own will but for no particular

reason. She is just a child who saw a big tire and decided to make it in to something she could have fun with. It is a

learning experience, probably something she has never done before, maybe something she will never do again.

Through play she is learning about herself, what she desires, what she does not. She is experiencing so many

emotions that she will later use to inform her decision for when she is faced with a similar situation in the future. At

the same time she is being subconsciously informed by her past experiences, maybe traumas, of what she should

do next. While she is learning all of this a viewer can as well if he/she pays attention to something usually

overlooked.

Growing up Girl

Similarly, Growing up Girl was also a photography collection on display at the Rhode Island Center for

Photographic Arts that depicted life as a young girl by mother of three girls, Tira Khan. A photography project that

started off as something much smaller, Growing up Girl, was originally influenced by a Khan taking a simple

portrait of her three daughters. After the fact she realized that a more candid portrait of the girls was more

appealing to her as she felt it said more about the girls to see them in their own place thinking freely or doing

simple activities, thus Growing up Girl was born. It now contains several photographs of Tira Khan’s daughters in

their everyday lives doing activities such as brushing their teeth, their hair, eating breakfast, etc.. They read as a

photojournalists work would, seeming to study the subject, documenting it’s movement and new developments.

Essentially Khan was doing the work of a photojournalist but she was following stories that are so common most

people don’t stop to examine the subtle differences and what they could mean. That is what makes this work

special. Most females growing up in similar situations to Khan’s daughters can relate to this way of growing up and

developing character, even males who grew up with females would feel her work seems familiar. But, at the same

time as this work being so familiar with so many audiences the stories are all different. Even within the three sister

subjects there are subtle differences that Khan said in her Artist Statement became something much larger,

character development. It is important to document and share such seemingly simple activity documented in

Growing up Girl because although it all seems so simple and mundane, in time it will add up to something greater

and without projects such as this it might never be fully understood.