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Indepth Arts News:
"Lauren Piperno: Living History - American Pop Culture and the Performer"
2003-11-01 until 2003-11-31
Coffey Gallery
Kingston, NY,
USA United States of America
LIVING HISTORY sets the stage for Ms. Piperno’s continued investigation of
America’s desire to recapture by-gone eras. Always a keen witness to the
moment, Piperno’s uncanny facility for seeing the past and transcending the
here-and-now is especially poignant in the premiere portfolio of the heirs of
democracy: sacred Native American gatherings and historic Colonial re-enactments.
As the colonialists fought for their independence, the creation of the American Constitution in 1787 was derived from many earlier sources of democracy.
One in particular was the working example of the Iroquois League, with their
unwritten constitution that spelled out checks and balances, rules of procedure, limits of power, and a stress on individual liberty. Piperno’s black & white work-in-progress, pairing a powwow with a colonial image, probes the rich, cultural legacy of the historic mid-Hudson region. Her work pays homage to the performer and the desire for re-enactment, and yet questions the three centuries of cultural and historical domination of the revolutionary colonists over the indigenous Native American population by placing the two groups on an equal footing. The viewer is given a glimpse of the tradition and honor of both worlds out of which America’s democracy grew - through observing the sacred dignity of the Native American Powwow dancer, and the historic authenticity of the colonial re-enactor. Also in November, this work will be a featured portfolio on Drexel University’s website: Online Journal Gallery, www.drexel.edu/doj.
Ms. Piperno, photographer and educator, currently resides in the historic
birth place of the American Revolutionary War, Kingston, NY, and teaches at ICP
in NYC, SUNY Westchester, White Plains, NY, and Ramapo College, Mahwah, NJ.
Her work is included in the permanent collections of The Museum of Modern Art,
The Brooklyn Museum, George Eastman House, Bibliothéque Nationale, among
others. Published features include Smithsonian and Philadelphia Inquirer Magazine, and reviews include American Photographer, Newsweek, and Le Nouvel Observateur. In 1995, Ms. Piperno received The American-Scandinavian Foundation’s Fellowship Award for her color portfolio juxtaposing portraits of Icelandic women with dramatic landscapes. Most recently, this work was included in a 3-person photography exhibit Angles On Scandinavia, held at Scandinavia House in NYC, curated by photo historian Ann Sass, and was the featured portfolio in the Photo District News (June 2003) review.
IMAGE
Lauren Piperno
Seneca Dancer 2003
(Polaroid / Silver Geletin Print)
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