October 14-November 25, 2017
Reconstructed History is an exhibit of photography that I curated for the Arts Council of Princeton in 2017. Anchored by selections from Wendel White’s Schools for the Colored series, the exhibit included lens-based work from Annie Hogan, Ann LePore, Casey Rubel and Leslie Sheryll.
"The artists in “Reconstructed History” transform documentary images by obscuring the primary data through layers of process both analog and digital. By veiling, masking, superimposing and peeling back from the original photo, the artists create textured visual narratives that reflect a broader historical complexity in both content and technique."
The exhibit was complimented by Wendel White’s Artist-In-Residence, Manifest: Robeson House Project. The artifacts photographed by White were excavated from the Paul Robeson house, birthplace of the eponymous actor and activist, at the corner of Witherspoon and Greene Streets. With detailed attention to items that are both universal and specific, the images, which are projected onto the Robeson House at dusk, shed light on its future as a public space while providing a glimpse into the past lives that made it their home.
“I think of the Robeson House Manifest collaboration, in conjunction with the Reconstructed History exhibit, as a meditation on the way that history exists between the fixed nature of material realities and the fluidity of shifting perspectives and evolving attitudes over time.” – Amy Brummer
ACP Website:
WHYY:
HyperAllergic:
US1 Newspaper:
Packet Online:
Historic Sites: Wendel White’s Schools for the Colored on View at the Paul Robeson Center for the Arts
Background Articles on Robeson House and Artifacts
