Conversation with the Artists: Nate Larson and Marni Shindelman
Thursday, January 31, 6 p.m., Dryden Theatre
Nate Larson and Marni Shindelman and George Eastman Museum associate curator Jamie M. Allen will have a conversation about the exhibition #LarsonShindelman #Mobilize as well as the artists’ project working with youth from the Out Alliance. Free to members, $10 general, and $5 students.
#LarsonShindelman #Mobilize is the culmination of new work by the artists, who work collectively as Larson Shindelman. The photographs are an extension of their ongoing series Geolocation, which in which they use data to create photographs and immersive installations related to social issues relevant in cities across the United States.
Larson Shindelman traveled to Rochester in July 2018 to create new work for Geolocation. Working with the DOLLY (Digital OnLine Life and You) Project, a research lab at the University of Kentucky, Larson Shindelman were able to source publicly available data from Twitter that showed trends in the use of specific hashtags, such as #BlackLivesMatter, in Rochester. They used the GPS information embedded in the social media posts to return to the sites where these public statements were made. They then documented each location with photographs. After carefully editing and selecting one picture to represent each location, they digitally added the text from the original tweets to the image. These works examine how smartphones have contributed to new ways of expressing oneself in public and a new era of social justice.
“This new work by Larson Shindelman underscores the power of social media as a way to assert one’s identity, call out media bias, and create new forms of protest,” said Jamie M. Allen, the Stephen B. and Janice G. Ashley Associate Curator, Department of Photography. “In their art, Larson Shindelman transform ephemeral bits of data into works that prompt discussions about public and private information, as well as social issues surrounding a citizen’s right to protest, gun violence, and discrimination based on race, gender, and/or sexual orientation. The final works tell a larger story about mass communication in relation to protest movements and racial politics in contemporary American society.”
The exhibition also includes an installation consisting of photographs the artists selected from public Twitter, Instagram, and Tumblr posts tagged with #IfTheyGunnedMeDown. This hashtag began trending just after Michael Brown was killed in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014.
#LarsonShindelman #Mobilize is generously supported by the Rubens Family Foundation.
