Gone By by Molly Reilly
Your Art Here presents ‘Gone By’ by artist Molly Reilly for the Massachusetts Ave. Billboard Project. The billboard will be mounted May 2006.
Artwork Statement
‘Gone By’ is from a series of landscapes entitled ‘All that Remains Will Be Devoured’. The images are composed from an eclectic stockpile of thrift store acquisitions, domestic detritus and items scavenged from the estates of the deceased. Based off an archive of 1960’s Kodachrome vacation slides, objects representing loss and familiarity are composed within vacant landscapes. Scanned and stitched together these images are full of seams. This is photography on the inside out, stretched and sustained by its remnants.
Foraging through thrift stores developed into my art, as art. Finding things I deemed as interesting had the same kind of satisfaction as photographing. Using the thrift in my art justified not only my obsession to go driving aimlessly, looking for obscure thrift stores but also seemingly useless purchases. Cataloging these things with the scanner gave the objects a replaced realism that was better in ways than owning the object, cluttering my space. This way I was also able to send it back where it came from keeping things moving in a cyclical nature. The flattening of these objects led to the removal of nearly all-structural material. These new compositions lent themselves like big stickers or strips of wallpaper, becoming atmospheric and reminiscent at the same time. Roads leading nowhere and folded, vacuum-like seams in the landscape constituted an exterior sense of comfort that worked its way out from the inside, letting out a certain amount of sadness and taking some back in again.
Artist Bio
Born 1973- Buffalo, NY In 1997 I received my BFA in Photography from the California College of Arts (CCA) in Oakland CA. Several years later I returned to CCA as the Studio Manager of the Photography Department. At this time I began showing work locally and nationally, including a series of images at the SF Arts Commission Gallery. I held my position as Studio Manager for several years before my acceptance to the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, MI. I received my MFA from Cranbrook in 2004. Prior to arriving at Indiana University I taught a variety of photography courses at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit and the University of Michigan in Flint.
Visit: www.mollyReilly.com