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Lens
crafters
PRC celebrates new home by opening space to community photographers
By Brian Fitzgerald
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Chris Yeager, Mr. Bubble, ink jet print, November 2001 |
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Your Work Here, the latest exhibition at the Photographic Resource Center
(PRC) at Boston University, means just that: a show open to anyone with
a photographic piece. Just drop it off, and the gallery will display
it.
But don’t go to the PRC’s old address, because Here isn’t
there. The exhibition is being held in the gallery’s new home at
832 Commonwealth Ave. During February and March, the PRC moved from its
basement location just outside Kenmore Square to a more visible facility
next to BU’s 808 Gallery and across the street from the BU Art
Gallery in the College of Fine Arts.
Designed to inaugurate the new location,
the exhibition is also meant to publicize the gallery’s refocus
on its community-oriented mission. “The
PRC has never done this type of exhibition before, and as far as I know,
no gallery in Boston has either,” says Terrence Morash, PRC executive
director. “I got the idea from the Artists Space Gallery’s
annual Night of a Thousand Drawings Benefit Show in New York City. The
gallery invites any artist to submit a work.”
Soon after Your Work
Here began accepting submissions on March 28, the photos started
arriving — at a rapid pace. By March 31, 113 works were
on the walls, and 94 on the floor leaning against the walls, waiting
to be hung. Alas, the PRC had run out of screws, and Morash had to make
a quick trip to a hardware store.
Needless to say, the walls are quickly
filling up. And while some galleries will go to the mat to keep artists
and viewers happy, Morash is willing
to “go to the ceiling,” he says, “wherever we have
wall room.” With a ceiling nearly 20 feet high, the new PRC is
certainly more capable than the old one in this regard. But what if every
square inch of exhibit space gets taken up? “Well, we have bathrooms,” he
says with a laugh. “They’re fair game.”
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Tricia Neumyer, Saturday, 11 a.m., toned gelatin silver print, 2001 |
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The exhibition
may be open to any artist, but a quick glance reveals anything but amateurish
photography. PRC curator Leslie Brown points
out that Your Name Here encompasses everything from student
works never previously exhibited to a well-known piece from established
surrealist
photographer Arno Rafael Minkkinen. It has photos that were shot recently,
including a couple of the February 17 and 18 blizzard: in Niamh Ultaigh’s Reflected
Warmth,
a Green Line train rumbles through the storm, and an untitled work by
Makoto Oiwane features an unattended bicycle standing
upright in the snow. If you’re looking for signs of spring, they
are there in the rich color of Larry Raskin’s Lillies and
in the sandy texture of Steve Blanchard’s Dune. There
are moody black-and-white shots, exemplified by Emily Corbato’s Ruin
at Baalbek, Lebanon,
and whimsical color photos, such as Strictly Private, in which
a child curiously peeks around a wall, despite a sign that gives the
piece its
title.
“
Just think, Your Work Here could provide a line on your résumé,” says
Brown. “I think the exhibition, along with the site, provides the
gallery with an important connection to the community.”
The new
facility, Morash adds, is also a perfect addition to the BU visual arts
community because its location near two other University art galleries “helps
make the area an arts destination -- sort of an arts district. I’m
hoping it will provide more foot traffic for all three galleries.” Its
glass storefront can be seen easily from the T, from vehicles on Commonwealth
Avenue, and even from the Massachusetts Turnpike.
“
The exhibition proves that there is an amazing amount of great photographers
in Boston, and viewers will recognize some of their names,” says
Morash. “But there are also some talented up-and-coming photographers.
The quality and diversity of what we have so far is amazing.”
Your Work Here, which is free and open to the public, will be exhibited at the Photographic Resource Center through April 13. Gallery hours are Tuesdays through Fridays, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Thursdays, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., and Saturdays and Sundays, noon to 5 p.m. Only one work of art per person will be accepted. The exhibited pieces, which can be no longer than 36 inches vertically or horizontally, must be ready to hang, but don’t have to be framed. For more information, call 617-975-0600, or visit www.bu.edu/prc.
4
April 2003
Boston University
Office of University Relations