Lorraine Tuck, Stuart Rome, Zig Jackson
Manus (in the 'poo poo pool'), 2021, Work from the exhibition "Unusual Gestures" by Lorraine Tuck, at Photo Museum Ireland (September-November 2023). Supported by The Arts Council/An Chomhairle Ealaíon © Lorraine Tuck
Photo Museum Ireland | Unusual Gestures : Lorraine Tuck, September 21, 2023 – November 11, 2023
“Irish artist Lorraine Tuck’s newly commissioned work tells the story of a family living with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) d intellectual disability. Curated and produced by Photo Museum Ireland this intensely moving and emotionally powerful photographic exhibition is an important contribution to public understanding of neurodiversity and intellectual disability.
“Tuck is the mother of four children, two boys and two girls. The boys have autism spectrum disorder, which in the case of the youngest, is coupled with severe intellectual disability. Unusual Gestures provides insights into the far-reaching implications that neurodiversity and disability present for families. It explores the impacts - some subtle, some fundamental - on parental and sibling relationships, and charts the challenges and joys of everyday family life. The exhibition succeeds in capturing how everyone, neurotypical as well as neurodiverse, forms the centre of their own separate and singular world, while at the same time it celebrates how we are all inescapably inter-connected to the human family tree.
“A further series of works in the exhibition focuses on the artist’s uncle Owen. Born in 1972 in Connemara, Owen has Down Syndrome and is gender fluid. At times, Owen chooses to live as a woman called ‘Pink’. Owen/Pink has collaborated with Tuck to produce a series of portraits exploring their fluid gender identity with joyful and refreshing honesty.
“At its heart, this exhibition is about love more than autism or disability. Transcending a documentary or issue-based record, Tuck’s work is a beautiful and clear-eyed call for acceptance and inclusion.”
For more information visit Photo Museum Ireland
H16-16, Prairie Creek, CA 19” x 19” & 36” x 36” Silver Gelatin and Pigment Print © Stuart Rome 2016 / 2021
SPACE Art Gallery | Oculus : Stuart Rome, September 23, 2023 – November 30, 2023
“Stuart Rome: Oculus is a solo exhibition of photographs made from with-inside ancient, living redwoods and sequoias in the American west. These giant trees are hollowed-out from millennia of lightning strikes and fires, and they form apertures to the sky and the canopy above. Though hollow, these trees remain very much alive and their charcoal dark interiors reveal strange shapes that suggest a passage from one recognizable world to another that is like a waking dream.
“For Rome, every process in picture-making is a vehicle for considering meaning. The choice of black and white materials simplifies chaotic imagery into a form where a new visual order appears.
“Rome places himself within the trees and uses the openings at the top as apertures, framing the sky. For him, these works are not meant to be photographic descriptions or documentation, but rather a catalyst designed to transport the viewer from a recognizable world into something original and unexpected.”
For more information visit SPACE Art Gallery
Entering Acoma Indian Reservation I-40, New Mexico, 1995, © Zig Jackson, courtesy Andrew Smith Gallery Arizona
Andrew Smith Gallery | Signs of Sovereignty : Zig Jackson, September 23, 2023 – November 25, 2023
“Andrew Smith Gallery Arizona LLC is pleased to announce the exhibition Signs of Sovereignty by Zig Jackson, with an opening reception with the artist on Saturday, September 23, 2023, from 7:00 – 10:00 pm at the Gallery at 330 South Convent Ave, Tucson, AZ 85701.
“Zig Jackson uses photography to de-mythologize his own history and to break down the romanticized stereotypes of “Indians'' perpetuated by popular media and folklore. When he was young, Jackson had an intense desire to meet as many Native People as he could. Over the years he has done just this, traveling throughout New Mexico, Arizona, California, North Dakota, South Dakota, Arkansas, Utah, North Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Mississippi, and elsewhere. Exposed to so many different tribal groups he has gained considerable perspective on issues important to Native People, as well as acquiring “proper Native American etiquette.” Thus, he tends to be warmly welcomed wherever he goes and invited into homes to rest and eat. Indian tribal groups are as culturally diverse as the regions they inhabit, distinguished from each other by appearance, language, and social mannerisms. And yet they all share the reality of being, at times, strangers in what was once their own land, in the aftermath of a vanished frontier and government policies that forced them from their homelands and onto reservations and into boarding schools as young children. In the straightforward photographic style of Robert Frank, Jackson captures the world of contemporary Indians, touching upon complex issues of tourism, marketing, myth, power sites, traditions, and stereotyping.
“This exhibition focuses on two areas that have attracted Jackson’s interest for 40 years — The signs that announce your arrival on a Native American Reservation. And the cultural tourism of roadside attractions that are like side shows at the edges and interiors of reservations.”
For more information visit Andrew Smith Gallery
