(Carol Jacobsen, Mistrial 7 (detail), 2010, photography and
engraved brass, 48" x
32")
Denise Bibro Fine Art presents Carol
Jacobsen: Mistrial, on view February 3rd through March 5th, 2011, in our
Platform project space. Co-Sponsored by Amnesty International, the exhibition
encompasses large-scale photography and video installation exploring issues of
women's
criminalization.
Selected and enlarged from the artist's own archive of original 8" x 10"
news photographs, the images displayed in Mistrial document the arrests
and murder trials of women in the early 20th century. Visually reminiscent of
17th century painting, some of the photographs emanate the delicate light of
Dutch interiors, while others conjure the dramatic chiaroscuro of Italian
Baroque portraits. Accompanying each photograph is its original news caption,
as well as a brass plate engraved with a judicial quote from a corresponding
contemporary murder trial. The eerie juxtaposition creates a poignant critique
of concepts of justice and gender which persist through
time.
The sense of temporality in the photographs is conveyed in the video
installation through the spatial journey of the camera's movement. The camera
moves from the outside of a woman's prison, and travels inward, first depicting
the circles of razor wire surrounding the prison, and finally ending deep inside
the darkest cells of the segregation unit. Narrated by women inmates, the video
portrays an intimate and personal narrative, as well as a highly-charged
political challenge to current punishment regimes.Together, the images in the
exhibition link the eras of the Wall Street crash, the Great Depression and the
recent global economic crisis, conveying a resonant sense of
timelessness.
Jacobsen's work has been shown internationally, and has been
co-sponsored by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. She has received
awards from National Endowment for the Arts, Women in Film Foundation, Paul
Robeson Foundation, and Art Matters. Jacobsen's essays have appeared in Hastings
Women's Law Journal, New York Law Review, Signs Journal, and Art in America. A
professor at the University of Michigan, she also directs Michigan Women's
Justice & Clemency Project, a grassroots effort for freedom, human rights, and
civil rights for women prisoners. She is represented exclusively by Denise Bibro
Fine
Art.
Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 11AM to 6PM. For more
information, or to request high resolution images, contact the gallery at the
information provided
below.
