Colleen Fitzgerald
Stamina
September 6 - October 31, 2019
Stamina provides new approaches to conventional subjects by utilizing the materials and tools of photography in non-traditional ways. A unique physical process combines aspects of sculpture and photography, subverting the idealized two-dimensional photograph and providing a new entry point to the enduring photographic subjects of natural landscapes, seascapes, and more.
To create the photographs, unexposed large sheets of positive film are cut and bent into three-dimensional shapes before being exposed inside a camera outfitted with a custom film holder that accepts the film as a three-dimensional object instead of as a standard, flat sheet. The results on the shaped film can appear stretched and distorted. In other instances, sheets of film are bent into shapes after exposure. Once the film is developed, it is re-photographed on a lightbox and printed. The final product of the land and seascapes pictured in these ways contain physical gestures and seem as unusual as they are familiar.
The folded, curved, cut, and overlapping sheets of film create immediate awareness of the materiality of the photograph and remind the viewer they are not looking at the landscape itself, but a deliberate construction of it arranged by the artist. The process reconstructs both reality and the very material that records reality. In doing so, the final product of the photographic work is not a direct representation of the world, but a negotiation of vision.
ABOUT THE ARTIST: Colleen Fitzgerald is a New England based visual artist and educator. Her practice incorporates a combination of experimental and traditional photography. ArtsWorcester of Massachusetts selected her as the recipient of the 2018 Present Tense Prize for artistic innovation, risk-taking, and excellence in execution in art, and she was named 3rd place in the 2018 PhotoNOLA Review Prize. She was chosen as the 2016/17 Artist in Residence at the Noble and Greenough School and a visual arts resident at the Vermont Studio Center and Virginia Center for Creative Arts. The Society for Photographic Education, Filter Photo Festival, Pingyao Photography Festival, and many more have featured her work in exhibitions.
Colleen earned a Master of Fine Arts from Parsons School of Design, a Bachelor of Arts from Boston College, and has also studied at La Scuola Lorenzo de’ Medici in Italy and Massachusetts College of Art and Design. She delivers talks at institutions across the country and exhibits work internationally. Colleen also enjoys curating exhibitions to champion the work of fellow artists. She has served as a faculty member at Endicott College, University of Maryland University College, Eastern Connecticut State University, University of New Hampshire, Memphis College of Art, and Parsons School of Design Teaching Assistantship. She has also designed and implemented curriculum for arts courses in Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom. http://colleenfitzgeraldstudio.com/