Cleanse, a photograph by D. Morrison Lyman is hanging on the 888 space.
Artwork Statment
Looks at My Loves
The latest series by D. Morrison Lyman
D. Morrison Lyman, a queer Chicago artist and activist, has been shooting and compiling this body of work over several years. Looks at my Loves is a collection of fragmented portraits of people in Morrison’s life and community. The images are snapshot glimpses of a delicious assembly of her loves and community members in all of their grief and glory. Images made are observations of individuals and relationships between: the subject(s) and the environment, the photographer and the subject, and often the subject and the viewer.
Subjects are each part of Morrison’s world in some capacity, as a friend, partner, ally, or advocate. Gender or sexual orientation-wise, they often transcend a common label or definition. For example, some of the subjects may consider themselves lesbians, but others may consider themselves transgender, queer, genderqueer, or genderrevolutionary, as essentially all of these terms represent anything considered ‘deviant’ or ‘alternative’ to/ of the ‘norm’. What constitutes ‘the norm’ is anyone’s educated guess: the dominant ideology, the commonly accepted norms as defined by the majority, and/ or the people in power. In this way, the images of Looks at My Loves serve to inform as well as observe this lifestyle. Consider these photos a true representation of real, queer life in the contemporary Midwest, today. In regards to the April 2005 Your Art Here Billboard image, the artist writes, Untitled (Liz in the tub) is a portrait of my (now former) partner. This image shows the intimacy and vulnerability of being in a loving relationship, and all of the complex emotions that accompany it.
Artist Bio
Morrison Lyman is a Chicago artist, performer, and photographer, and teacher. Raised in a small Midwestern farm community by a single mother artist, Morrison was taught the value and necessity of self-expression at a very early age. She has since developed this need to express into art that comments on and explores such issues as gender, body image, class, relationships, and fractured identity.
Yucca Flat, Andrew Glenn
Detail from Yucca Flat, NV, by Andrew Glenn, is an image that coincides with his MFA Thesis Exhibition, April 13–24, at the Indiana University Art Museum, Bloomington, IN, is hanging on the 922 space. Andrew’s opening reception is Friday, April 15, 6–8pm.