Singularity : An exhibition curated by Michele M. Penhall
Meaningful exhibitions begin with an idea. The accompanying pictures or objects then provide a visual equivalency for that idea, illuminating beyond what words convey, a deeper significance or even provoking a different impression altogether. These ideas vary over time and from person to person and this is in part why significant art continues to inspire and provoke long after it was made.
The structure of a museum or gallery allows viewers to experience an exhibition in a three-dimensional, dynamic arena, taking in one or as many images as the eye can absorb and from any path the individual may take. To experience art in the digital age, requires a different kind of viewing. Each of the photographs you see here was chosen for its own individual merits. This selection does not depend on a particular order or sequence. The photographs should be seen as singular, provocative individual pictures. They stand on their own and do not need a caption or explanation, just a keen sense of imagination from the viewer.
I extend to the artists represented here, both my thanks for their inspiring photographs, and my apologies for removing each image from the original context and/or narrative they had carefully constructed around a larger body of work.
Michele M. Penhall is an independent writer and curator. She served as the Curator of Prints and Photographs at the University of New Mexico Art Museum from 2004 to 2014. Her most recent publication, Stories from the Camera, Reflections on the Photograph, is forthcoming from UNM Press in 2015.
