August 09, 2014 through September 09, 2014
Robbie McClaran • Delta / From Here On
Please join us for the Opening Artist Reception Saturday, August 9, from 6-9pm!
Selections from “Delta” and “From Here On“
While my work is rooted in the documentary tradition I also seek to portray moments
of grace, beauty and mystery and am drawn to depict sculptural and painterly forms.
“Delta”
Takes it’s title from the vast alluvial plane on either side of the
Mississippi river, south of Memphis, in Arkansas and Mississippi.
“From Here On”
A title borrowed from a Woody Guthrie song and I think of the work as a kind of visual folk song.
This series of images evolved out of the “Delta” photographs.
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The pace of change in contemporary America over the past couple of decades has been dizzying. I travel often and I find the corporate commodified sameness to be empty and soulless. As vital and exhilarating as our modern hyper-connected wifi networked world can be, I am often left wanting something more connected to the past, something more authentic. Over the course of several road trips, spaced out over more than a decade, I sought the essence of that disappearing America, the one a traveler never finds unless they exit the freeway, stay off the main roads and stick to the state and county roads. A place where the mythology of the American dream is fading for many yet remains a powerful reality in the minds of others.
The spark of the work occurred during several return visits to my hometown and surrounding area in the deep south where I observed the economic and social decline the region has experienced in the forty years since I left home. Recording scenes of abandonment and decay I sought the beauty within and the spirit that remains within the people and the land.
Over time I visited other places throughout the country that have deeply personal connections for me, my mother’s birthplace in Ohio, the lake cabin I spent summers in my youth. I traveled to places with some locations chosen for their iconic American names such as Dodge City and Paris, Texas. Serendipity led me to others.
Robbie McClaran
May 28, 2014