The exhibition 'Periphery,' by Ithaca-based artists Mia Brown-Seguin, Oliver Stern, and Bradley Verhelle, is a photographic and illustrative exploration into disillusionment, individual experience of place, and ways in which environments exist in the mind.  Via collaborative printmaking and curation, the artists present distortions of lived realities, challenging conventional perceptions of realities and inviting viewers to reconsider their relationship with their viewed environments.  

 

At the core of 'Periphery' is a focus on those spaces which exist just outside of, next to, or behind our relied upon fields of vision.  These environments may be described as 'hiding in plain sight' or 'distortions of the physical world.'  It is the intention of the artists to disorient the viewer first.  In so doing, we drive ourselves to discover or determine the answer on our own by righting our perception, even if that discovery requires reassessment of such environments.  Images become confrontational objects to the viewer - literally or metaphorically revealing their disillusionment.  

 

Materially, the body of 'Periphery' is composed entirely prints and illustrations made via antiquated processes.  Among these processes are aquatint prints, broad spectrum (infrared) photography, cyanotype, gum-dichromate prints, illustrations, intaglio prints, and trichromatic photogrpahy.  Each process comes together, often in combination, to yield equally alternative represenetations of place.  These methodologies are chosen not only for their extreme utility and workability, but also for their historical significance and unconventionality.  These processes are adjacent to and hidden behind the modern photographic and illustrative processes employed by artists and industries every day.  The use of antiquated processes implies not only a history and stigma of perception, but also asks viewers to consider how modern methods of recording our perceptions model the way we percieve the world around us day-to-day.

 

In essence, 'Periphery' uses antiquated and alternative processes to push the conceptual and material boundaries of how we percieve.  The work stands as a mentally interactive 'playground' in which viewers are begin by second-guessing the content of the work and end by redefining the ways in which they see.  Perceptual validation is less a theme and moreso an objective of 'Periphery'.  The exhibition acknowledges the subjectivity of invidual experience while standing as a collective point of reconstruction for these perceptive experiences.  

Body of Work

Gallery