Exhibition: February 11 through February 28, 2012
Curated by Yulia Tikhonova
Opening reception: Saturday, February 11, from 3-5 pm
Kings Highway Library
2115 Ocean Ave., Brooklyn, NY 11229
718-375-3037
Q or B train to Kings Highway
Press release:
EMPATHIES & REVELATIONS brings together two emerging photographers who
explore the states of isolation and loneliness as revealed to them by people.
The women’s perspectives in which embrace their roles as care-takers is the focus of the
work included in this exhibition. Paolo Morales photographed his distant relatives and
acquaintances on his recent trip to Philippines whilst Emily Holzknecht directs her camera
at Juliet, an 80-year old women suffering from dementia, who is tucked away in an assisted living facility.
Both artists establish an empathy with their subjects in an effort to reveal how these
individuals make sense of the world around them as they draw further away from it. During this experience the camera became a tool for both Paolo and Emily to explore their own personal identity quest, into which the photographers are compelled as they engage their subjects. However both artists approach their subjects from the position of one who is an outsider. Morales’ images are tinted by his seemingly objective position caused by his
divergent identities as both a Filipino and as an American. Holzknecht who met Juliet
through her research is fascinated by the complexity of an old woman’s behavior and the
alienation she experiences personally, looking at death through Juliet’s face.
Both artists attempt to capture a limbo state, which exist between life and death. Death and memory are the interweaving themes of this project. Although the women photographed are alive, the images give way their condition of suspended time.
Both artists appear to experience a sense of dislocation that stems from being both foreign
and familiar while engaging to their subjects. Ultimately their artistic goal is to discover
themselves: in looking at how we live at the end of our lives, and what we as artists reveal
and what is revealed to us in the process.
Bios:
Emily Holzknecht was born and raised in northern New Jersey and is currently a BFA
candidate at The Art Institute of Boston. Always an avid reader, her interest in humanity
and narrative lead her to develop a strong interest in the photographic portrait and its
power to simultaneously reveal and obfuscate. Her work has been exhibited at the
Photographic Resource Center and Laconia Gallery in Boston.
Paolo Morales is a photographer and BFA candidate at the Art Institute of Boston. He
has exhibited work at the Detroit Center for Contemporary Photography, C Street Gallery,
Trevor Day School and Gallery 44, among others. His editorial work has appeared on the
cover of College Magazine. In 2010, he curated a show entitled Select Gender at the
Farmani Gallery in Brooklyn. He lives in New York and Boston.
EMPATHIES & REVELATIONS is the part of the series Boro to Boro: Artists in Libraries that has been curated by Yulia Tikhonova, Brooklyn House of Kulture in conjunction with the Brooklyn Public Library network. This series gives artists the opportunity to work within communities and to promote art that enhances public good.
This exhibition is sponsored, in part, by the Greater New York Arts Development Fund of
the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, administrated by Brooklyn Arts Council
(BAC) Brooklyn House of Kulture
Artist websites
☞ www.paolomorales.com
☞ www.emilyholzknecht.com
related post:
☞ ACMV Feature: Paolo Morales | Unearned Intimacy
