30/9/2004
Destinations
Mass MoCA, North Adams
Photographic Exploration of the Picturesque. A series of photographs by Canadian artist Isabelle Hayeur. The series features photos of Northern American tourist attractions - nature preserves and towns, like Cape Cod, the Everglades, and the Mohave Desert. The exhibition is comprised of four large photographs: Sediments, Thebaide, Dunes, and Torrent.
Photographic Exploration of the Picturesque to open October 1, 2004
Destinations, a series of photographs by Canadian artist Isabelle Hayeur, opens at MASS MoCA on October 1, 2004 and runs through Fall 2005 in the Hunter Center corridor gallery along MASS MoCA's Hunter Center. The series features photos of Northern American tourist attractions -- nature preserves and towns, like Cape Cod, the Everglades, and the Mohave Desert. The exhibition is comprised of four large photographs, each measuring approximately 33'' x 150'': Sediments, Thebaide, Dunes, and Torrent.
Digitally knitting together photographic elements, Hayeur creates large, seamless panoramas that juxtapose stunning windswept dunes with vernacular scenes such as trailer parks, truckstops and everyday signage. She asks her audiences to look past what is ''picturesque'' and find meaning beyond ''the view.'' By photographing popular tourist sites and combining them with industrial and other sites not conventionally associated with beauty, Hayeur shows how tourism imagery affects the way we look at landscapes. Says Hayeur, ''Tourism conditions the way we look at the land. It is an industry that grows by creating a vast network of privileged and idealized points of view.''
MASS MoCA curator Laura Heon finds connections between Hayeur's work and the Berkshires, explaining, ''Berkshire County has long been known for its natural beauty, quaint farms, and charming little towns. The presence of working-class cities like North Adams and Pittsfield is downplayed in the tourist version of this region, which trades in idyllic mountain vistas rather than diners, old factories, and row houses. This is true not only here in the Berkshires, but also in most ‘beauty spots' like Cape Cod and Lake George.''
Isabelle Hayeur was born -- and lives -- in Montreal. She received bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Quebec. She has exhibited her photographs, videos, site-specific interventions, and web projects throughout Canada and Europe. Hayeur is the recipient of The Contact Prize for Emerging Photography Artist and has shown her work in various venues, including Photographic Gallery Hippoyte in Helsinki, Finland, and Centro Cultural Casa Vallarta in Guadalajara, Mexico. This is Hayeur's first exhibit in the United States.
The exhibition is made possible in part by the Appelbaum-Kahn Foundation.
MASS MoCA, the largest center for contemporary visual and performing arts in the United States, is located on Marshall Street in North Adams on a 13-acre campus of renovated 19th-century factory buildings. MASS MoCA's galleries are open from 11 A.M. to 5 P.M. every day except Tuesday. For more information visit the website or call 413 664 4481.
Massmoca
87 Marshall Street
North Adams