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Exhibition: Dawoud Bey: The Chicago Project
Exhibition: Group Portrait
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* * GROUP PORTRAIT
April 5-June 15, 2003
Joel and Carole Bernstein Gallery

One of the results of the residency was this student-curated exhibition, which includes photographs by Dieter Appelt, Morrie Camhi, Robert Doiseneau, Walker Evans, Susan Fenton, Laura Letinsky, Helen Leavitt, Danny Lyon, Sally Mann, Adrian Piper, Man Ray, Ben Shahn, David Teplica, James Van Der Zee, and Francesca Woodman from the Smart Museum's collection and a private collection. Rather than taking a historical approach, the curatorial process focused on visual and interpretive relationships among images. Through hands-on activities during the residency the students investigated how context can shape meaning, and discovered that the ways they arranged the photographs could dramatically change their understanding of the images. They worked together to devise three groups of images and then decided to graffiti the walls as a way to disrupt the formality and authority of the museum space. Through the words and drawings on these walls, they offer their own—sometimes conflicting—responses to the photographs and to the ideas they explored during Bey's residency.

Click on an image to see a larger version.

Isabel discusses images Trio Painting South-east walls of gallery