The Making of a Portrait

2022

March 7 – March 13

SITE Sharp Gallery

Contributing Artists

Tony Sims, ft. Lynn Hunter

Exhibition Statement as Preserved in the SUGS/SITE Archives:

The Making of a Portrait is a six-night performance series that investigates the atemporal nature of archives and documentation. Through atemporality, amplified through the quietness and stillness of images, one sees personal histories align, creating a unique opportunity to mourn the truths of the past, align ourselves with the present, and reclaim for the future. It is essential to examine this work counterintuitively, which decolonizes the interpretation of a subject’s history and that which is often examined as metanarratives in institutional belief. Meaning, it is essential to investigate history without words, for once history is transcribed through language, it becomes unjustifiable.

 

The Making of Portrait centers around seven images and creates an opportunity to examine these images as a contemplative experience. In other words, contemplation is communal and exists within a space between us and others. So images, seeming uncommunicative, speak subtle messages for those willing to engage.