Vann Powell

On View March 24-April 10
Fredric Jameson Gallery

Artist Talk April 5 at 4:30pm
Fredric Jameson Gallery

Not unlike many children who grew up along the Eastern coast of the United States, my father often took us around to different American historical sites during family vacations. Civil War sites held a certain amount of intense gravity whose histories and stories commanded my attention as a child, the number of dead and suffering on and off the battlefield, unresolvable. Now, older and as an artist I am interested in who and why others visit these sites. What can images of these visitors and the landscapes tell us about our relationship to a past that was and continues to be formative for our stories as Americans. Touching on themes of identity politics, division, and layering of history, On Contentious Ground looks at visitors to Civil War sites today to investigate America’s past and continued connection to these sites of reckoning.

 

 

VANN POWELL is a documentary artist, art educator and book artist based in Durham, N.C. Vann’s current work focuses on the relationships between past and place, paying close attention to how the two help formulate identity.