Dallas Center for Photography: Installation

Dallas Center for Photography
4756 Algiers Street
Dallas, TX
Apr 15 - May 13, 2023
Opening Reception: April 15, 6-8pm
Curated by Emily Edwards, Assistant Curator, Dallas Contemporary, Dallas, Texas

Curatorial Statement

Memory as Medium

In the ever-expanding field of contemporary art, memory art has emerged as a subgenre that engulfs subject matter such as autobiography, revisionist and/or collective memory, the archive, nostalgia, repetition, history, temporality, and amnesia. It also considers the impact of museums and galleries in the construction and presentation of history and knowledge.

The medium of photography plays a vital role in this movement. Once understood as capturing and preserving singular moments in time, it is now recognized as having a multifaceted and often slippery relationship to linear and factual documentation. Contemporary artists, such as Hiroshi Sugimoto, Sophie Calle, and Carrie Mae Weems, have embraced this multiplicity by exploring how photography can construct history, memory, and the perception of time.

The artist collective Memory is a Verb situates itself within this larger contemporary movement with its exhibition Memory is a Verb: Exploring Time and Transience. The eleven female artists utilize photography to document the richness and complexity of their relationship to time and memory. The origins of memory art are rooted in processing trauma and difficult historical pasts. These photographers do this through collectively creating work in response to both the COVID-19 pandemic and the quotidian stresses of everyday living, including parenting, aging, and grieving, and seeking meaning through it all. Through their work, these eleven artists remind us all that to remember is to be human. Collectively they celebrate our shared humanity, profoundly influencing how we see ourselves and others. After these past few years of uncertainty and grief, this exhibition maps a way forward toward communal understanding and healing.

About the Curator

Emily Edwards is the Assistant Curator at Dallas Contemporary. While there, she has curated solo exhibitions of artists Gabrielle Goliath, Natalie Wadlington, Shilpa Gupta, Ariel Rene Jackson, and Margarita Cabrera and assisted over thirty exhibitions. She is currently working on presentations of artists Bianca Bondi and Chloe Chiasson. Prior to Dallas, she worked at the 9/11 Memorial Museum. Her research interests include memorialization, diasporic art, and sociopolitical commentary. She graduated with a BFA with Honors in Art History from the University of Texas at Austin and an MA in Art History and Museum Studies from Georgetown University.