Stan State University Art Gallery presents Photosynthetics by Stephanie Deumer from Monday, August 24 – Friday, October 9. An opening reception will take place Thursday, August 27, at 6:00 p.m.
Exhibition Description
“Photosynthetics” features photographic lightboxes that double as terrariums for plants. Depicting female figurative garden statues—humble concrete facsimiles of Greek and Roman originals—they symbolize allegories of nature, culture, power, and gender. Environmental elements such as sunlight, wind, snow, ice, lichen, moss, and insects have corroded and consumed the statues, which stand as markers of time. This natural/artificial dichotomy is further embodied in the photographs themselves, serving as a source of artificial light for plants. Foliage grows in the frames, utilizing the glowing imagery to sprout and photosynthesize throughout the exhibition.
About the Artist
Stephanie Deumer is a Canadian visual artist currently living and working in Los Angeles, California. Connecting seemingly dissimilar content into a web of insight, her installations uncover the ways subjects are constituted through and by language, media, and technology. Deumer holds an MFA from California Institute of the Arts and was a fellow at the Whitney Independent Study Program in New York. She currently teaches at the University of Washington, Seattle, and California State University, San Marcos.