Bonsack Gallery in St. Louis: Installation

Bonsack Gallery at John Burroughs School

755 South Price Road
St. Louis, MO 63124
Aug 25 - Oct 2, 2023
Opening Reception: Aug 25, 5:30-7:30pm
Curated by Molly Moog, Curatorial Assistant at the Pulitzer Arts Foundation

The reception included remarks by Scott Deken, PhD, about memory and the brain at 6 pm. Dr. Deken teaches a Grade 12 elective in behavioral neuroscience at John Burroughs School. 

Curatorial Statement

Memory—although often considered static—is changeable and built upon individuals’ perceptions. New insights continuously illuminate prior experiences, influencing our understanding of the present moment. Likewise, the present slips into the past at the instant we seek to define it. 

Memory is a Verb unites the work of eleven women photographers exploring notions of time and transience. Images of family, friends, and spaces—both familiar and unfamiliar—reflect the artists’ deeply personal meditations on change, loss, mortality, and legacy. Some photographers reckon with the passage of time by returning to the same subject over days, months, or years. Others alter images through multiple exposures or chemical interventions, exploring the vulnerability of photographs and the memories attached to them. Capitalizing upon the camera’s ability to fix a moment in time, these artists highlight the centrality of photographs to our understanding of the past and present.

Memory is a Verb is curated by Molly Moog (‘08) and features the work of Elizabeth Bailey, Annette LeMay Burke, Dena Eber, Sarah Hadley, Diane Hemingway, Susan Lapides, Jennifer Pritchard, Annie Omens, Lori Ordover, Rosalie Rosenthal ('85), and Aline Smithson

About the Curator

Molly Moog is a Curatorial Assistant at the Pulitzer Arts Foundation in St. Louis, MO. She is an alumni of John Burroughs School.