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The Artists  
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Personal Histories
Using Photographs to Explore Identity, Ethnic HeritageThe three artists featured in Personal Histories all draw upon their own lives in the creative process. Radcliffe Bailey, Juan Sanchez, and Renee Stout incorporate family or found photographs in their artwork, using them in various ways to examine and express their identities and their ethnic heritage. Through photographs, text, mixed media, and construction, these artists are defining who they are and where they have come from, while also giving voice to their ancestors. They use recovered images as a starting place to emphasize or inform their work. They ask questions about memory. What do we really "remember" or "gain" by searching the details of a family portrait? Bringing to light an individual identity or narrative, they seem to be saying, represents the collective memory for an entire people.These artists approach the photograph and its multiple possibilities for self-exploration and self-image in provocative ways. Over the years the Center for Documentary Studies has initiated and supported projects that encourage young people to make images of themselves and their world and to paint and write on these images as a means of self-exploration. The work of these three artists invites viewers to consider how everyone's personal history can be explored using a varied set of documentary tools. Personal Histories was curated by Susan Page. This project received support from the North Carolina Arts Council, an agency funded by the state of North Carolina and the National Endowment for the Arts. The exhibition and its associated programs are also supported by the Lyndhurst Foundation. |
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Check out our companion exhibit in the Lounge Gallery: |
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