Date/Time
Date(s) - September 2, 2021
5:30 pm - 6:30 pm
Location
Organ Recital Hall, University Center for the Arts
Dionne Lee will give an artist talk on Thursday, September 2 at 5:30 p.m. in the Organ Recital Hall at the University Center for the Arts. The program is held in conjunction with the exhibition Dionne Lee: A Muscle Memory and presented in partnership with the Center for Fine Art Photography (C4FAP).
Digital streaming is available through the C4FAP: https://c4fap.org/events-blog/lee-artisttalk
Dionne Lee holds an MFA from the California College of the Arts and considers the complications of, and dual legacies in, photographic landscapes in her work. She looks to historical narratives to identify American soil as a site of trauma and questions how history determines the autonomy and endurance of people across time. Lee’s work also features research and physical action—including the repeated appearance of hands—to locate the body in the scenic vista. Most of the art in A Muscle Memory pre-dates the pandemic, yet Lee confronts the now ubiquitous repercussions of global uncertainty, climate change, and natural disasters. She asks the crucial question: who is best positioned to survive in these chaotic, ever-changing spaces?
In this exhibition, Lee collages and juxtaposes found images from survival manuals with silver gelatin prints of her own photographs. The analog process of this printing medium, which the artist also employs in repurposing her found images, mirrors the instinctual and tactile nature of endurance skills in the landscape. By researching traditional wilderness survival, Lee investigates how trauma and history inform everyday life, one’s ability to persevere, and the tenacity in working alongside the land.
Dionne Lee will be joined by poet, author, and CSU professor Camille Dungy and photographer Odette England in conversation on Friday, September 3 at 5:30 p.m.
Support for this project has been generously provided City of Fort Collins Fort Fund, by the FUNd Endowment at CSU, and with support from Colorado Creative Industries. CCI and its activities are made possible through an annual appropriation from the Colorado General Assembly and federal funds from the National Endowment for the Arts.
This project was also made possible, in part, through a grant from the Lilla B. Morgan Memorial Endowment, which works to enhance the cultural development and atmosphere for the arts at Colorado State University. This fund benefits from the generous support of all those who love the arts.