RICHARDSON, Texas (Feb. 27, 2001) – An innovative new exhibition entitled “Picture I.D.” and curated by UTD Associate Professor Marilyn Waligore, will be held from March 23 to April 21 in the Main Gallery of the Visual Arts Building on the campus of The University of Texas at Dallas.  “Picture I.D.” is an exhibition of photographs and digital works created by Texas artists Nicole Arendt, Tammy Cromer-Campbell, Wade Crowder, Kaleta Doolin, Randall Garrett, Alan Govenar and Tim Tracz that explores issues relating to likeness and identity.

 

The exhibition will be free and open to the public during gallery hours Monday-Friday from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. and Saturday 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.  There will be an opening reception on Saturday, March 23 in the Main Gallery of the Visual Arts Building beginning at 6:30 p.m.  A panel discussion will follow at 7 p.m. featuring artist Randall Garrett, artist and writer Alan Govenar and Barbara McCandless, curator of photographs at the Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth.

 

“In an era when we now establish one's physical identity through signifiers such as fingerprints, DNA, and the mapping of the human genome, the picture I.D. might seem somewhat anachronistic,” Waligore said.  “However, the functionality of picture-based identification persists in daily life.  Connecting digital technology with its analogue predecessor, we move from a catalogue of mug shots to computerized pattern recognition systems that interpret facial I.D.s.  Photography's connection to this shared experience and our participation in the creation of a portrait archive are legacies of the 19th century.  Now is the ideal time to reflect on the camera's connection to picture identification, the use of camera-based images to establish identity.”  Waligore added that the artists in the exhibition “investigate, challenge, and negotiate the conventions of photographic representation to reveal the methods we use to locate our own identities.”

 

About the Exhibition…

In an era when we now establish one's physical identity through signifiers such as fingerprints, DNA, and the mapping of the human genome, the picture I.D. might seem somewhat anachronistic.  However, the functionality of picture-based identification persists in daily life.  Connecting digital technology with its analogue predecessor, we move from a catalog of mug shots to computerized pattern recognition systems that interpret facial I.D.s.  Photography's connection to this shared experience and our participation in the creation of a portrait archive are legacies of the 19th century.  Now is the ideal time to reflect on the camera's connection to picture identification, the use of camera-based images to establish identity.

 

These artists investigate, challenge, and negotiate the conventions of photographic representation, to reveal the methods we use to locate our own identities.  Kaleta Doolin and Nicole Arendt and explore issues relating to images of the female body and the self.  Kaleta Doolin’s digital juxtapositions, portraits and figure studies of the artist/past with the artist/present, present a real/ideal dichotomy and critique our culture’s futile search for the ideal body.   Nicole Arendt’s color photographs disrupt mediated stereotypes.  Her series, depicting a young woman gnawing on a piece of fried chicken, reminds us of advertising’s subliminal messages relating to the female body and flesh prepared for consumption.

 

Fantastic digital montages combine Randall Garrett’s self-portrait as a 21^st century wannabe astronaut with 1960s pop culture, pointing to photography’s role as a facilitator in imagining the self.  Alan Governar’s large color photographs and digital prints extend the function of the photographic portrait by documenting individuals who merge identity and physical transformation via the art of the tattoo.   The blurred distinction between appropriated subjects from 19^th century photographic documents and Tim Tracz’s photographic environments confounds the viewer’s attempt to find the “true” character of the sitter in these digitally constructed portraits.

 

Meanwhile, a documentary approach is embraced by artists Tammy Cromer-Campbell and Wade Crowder, in their black and white gelatin silver portraits.  Tammy Cromer-Campbell documents children who reside in Winona, Texas, a town polluted by toxic waste; these images remind us of the connection between our physical selves and the environment in which we live, underscoring both our humanity and our frailty.  Wade Crowder photographs his students from Skyline High—in an alternative to the standard high school yearbook--and provides us with a glimpse, through images and accompanying text, of the diversity and individuality of young adults as they engage in the process of locating their own place in the larger Dallas community.