#InTheLoop | New MoMA PS1 Exhibit Explores Similarity, Symmetry + Differences
BY QEDC It's In Queens
Deana Lawson is a thought-provoking photographer whose work examines the human body’s ability to channel personal and social histories.
The Rochester native — and former Guggenheim Fellow — opens her first-ever museum survey at MoMA PS1 in Long Island City on Thursday, April 14.
On display until Sept. 5, the exhibition features more than 50 images from family albums, studio portraitures, documentary pictures, and other images that explore and relate life in Africa and the Diaspora.
Viewers can expect highly staged photographs of subjects in living rooms, kitchens, and backyards from Brooklyn to New Orleans, Haiti to Ethiopia, and Brazil to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The intimate depictions weave together narratives of family, love, and desire, creating what Lawson describes as “a mirror of everyday life.”
The above piece, Roxie and Raquel, New Orleans, Louisiana, 2010, is a study in similarity and difference. Twin sisters kneel in a wide bed. They face away from each other but look toward the camera with different expressions. As their backs touch, each sister raises one arm above her head, gently touching the other’s hand in a dancelike gesture. Two white curtains hang in front of two windows and two black lamps sit on glass-topped tables at either side of the bed. Two sconces are on a wall, but they’re off center.
Are they identical or fraternal twins? Do they have similar personalities and interests? Is symmetry necessary to create beauty? Would this image be more — or less — powerful if it were symmetric? Lawson is a twin. How does that influence her work?
The survey was curated by Eva Respini for ICA/Boston and Peter Eleey for MoMA PS1. It premiered at ICA/Boston last fall, and after the MoMA PS1 show, it’ll head to The High Museum in Atlanta.
Located at 22-25 Jackson Ave., MoMA PS1 is open from noon to 6 pm from Thursday through Monday and until 8 pm on Saturday. It’s near the Court Sq stop for the E, G, M, and 7 trains.
Top two images: MoMA PS1; bottom two images: Rob MacKay