Challenging Adversity

November 4 – December 18, 2016

Challenging Adversity

Ibero-America Copes with Climate Change

Faced with the adversity generated by climate change, social and economic globalization factors, the populations of Ibero-American countries devised ways to tackle these difficulties through small undertakings with varying degrees of technological influence. This ability to use imagination and creativity, in the hopes of building a better world, has allowed for the creation of sustainable economy projects that open new paths and new alternatives for mankind. At the same time, they help recover key elements for the environment.

This exhibit aims to gather images of those projects and undertakings based on the natural survival spirit that allows man to confront change. “Challenging Adversity” not only focuses on aesthetic aspects of the photography itself, but also intends to give testimony to the commitment made by our countries in the face of transformation.
This way, the exhibit will be a display window for AACIA member countries to feature, through its photographers, the ways they individually and governmentally engage different socio-economic profiles of a world under construction.

The work of each of these photographers represents a reality of their country of origin. They show a wide thematic spectrum relating to the need for awareness regarding aspects of reality. At the same time, they symbolize a positive and hopeful attitude on the part of man before the inevitable. Through the use of intelligent climate
agricultural technology, watering methods, use of volcanic ash, architecture, and fauna and flora recovery projects, populations are beginning to find ways to confront new challenges.

November 4 – December 18, 2016

FORMAT

juried by Laila Abdul-Hadi Jadallah

It is a challenge and a delight for a juror to be faced with the problem of too much great work. With little restrictions on submission criteria, in reviewing over 100 submissions, I was reminded of just how diverse the medium of photography really is, and how many different ways the photographer can not only interact with its subject, but also its future audience. A photographer experiments with what to place within the frame or not; what type of light, film, camera, paper and even what size she/he believes will portray the story within the photograph best.

The 35 works chosen here reflect each artist’s sensibility and were chosen for their unique perspectives despite the size restriction of this small works show. A photograph takes you places – real or imagined – and these did just that for me. I hope they evoke the same feeling as you see the diversity of works presented.

Congratulations to all who entered, to those in the exhibition – all who put themselves and their perspectives forward. Thank you Allison and HAS for inviting me to do what I love most, reflect on photographs.

Unveiled

Quito, Ecuador
In a three-hour conversation, I told my parents “I’m gay.” Accompanied by my sisters, I documented the event in the experimental photography project “Unveiled.”

In the planning process, the reality of Unveiled both excited and unnerved me. At 28, the possibility of rejection by my conservative Catholic, Ecuadorian parents, was one of many potential risks. My parents needed to be comfortable. I wanted to document natural reactions.

I needed to desensitize them to cameras. Much preparation was in order.
So… I prepared.

I photographed them cooking, brushing their teeth, shaving, smoking, and watching soap operas. I photographed them walking, tying their shoes, waking up, working in the office. I photographed my mother doing her nails.

The preparation for the project, surprisingly, plays an integral role in the actual project: coming out to my family at a dinner table, with three cameras, each shooting every five seconds.

The finished product provides the viewer a series of images, each telling a different story of the family they portray, the way those members interact, and ultimately, a photographer Unveiled.

Paola Paredes (b.1986) is a photographer born and based in Quito, Ecuador. Blending traditional documentary photography with staged imagery, her work focuses on issues facing the LGBT community, exploring contemporary attitudes towards homosexuality in Ecuador. Putting herself at the forefront of her imagery, her work represents a personal and intimate challenge to social prejudices, and invites renewed discourse on the interactions between sexuality, family and personal freedom in contemporary society.

Paola received a Bachelor’s degree in graphic design in Quito before completing her first photography masters degree at Middlesex University. She is currently undertaking a second masters in Photojournalism and Documentary Photography at London College of Communication.

Her first major photographic work ‘Unveiled’ was widely celebrated upon its publication, and has been extensively distributed online, receiving support from prominent publications including Feature Shoot, Fotografia Magazine, Cosmopolitan, and Huffington Post.

www.unveiledtheproject.com
www.paolaparedes.com

Curated by: Anna Emilia Becker

#Vote4Pope

#Vote4Pope is a public participatory art performance project intended to draw attention to the unequal status of women in the Catholic Church in a fun and jestful manner. It is a traveling trunk show of Papal regalia and props. Participants will don their favorite Papal outfit from a display of clothing comprising an array of Pope’s cassocks, mozettas, zucchettos, stoles and female shoes in Papal colors, white and red. The attire will be laid out, retail style, according to varying sizes, just as they are for a newly elected Pope in the Room of Tears at the Vatican. Participants can then pose as Pope and have their photograph uploaded to social media sites and the project website Vote-4-Pope.com as a form of activism.
Anyone can participate in #Vote4Pope – it is an equal opportunity event. The conceptual basis of the project is to use portraiture as a tool for self-visualization and social activism in a fun and lighthearted fashion.
The public can schedule an appointment for your Papal portrait via the Vote-4-Pope.com website. Each participant should allow 30 minutes for each session.

Jackie Hoysted is a native of Ireland, currently residing in Bethesda, Maryland. She has a degree in computer science from Trinity College Dublin, Ireland and a fine arts degree from the George Washington Corcoran School of Arts & Design, Washington DC.
She has had multiple solo shows of her artwork throughout the US, including Washington DC, Maryland, Virginia, Nevada and Illinois and has been featured in several notable publications, including: the Washington Post, the Huffington Post, the Express, the Gazette, the Washington City Paper, The Pittsburgh Review and the Richmond and Baltimore Examiners’. The digital media author Scott Ligon selected her work for inclusion in his book The Digital Art Revolution. She is the creator of the project Send Me Your last Cigarette, the founder of Countdown Temporary Artspace and visual arts curator for Solas Nua, an Irish organization that promotes contemporary Irish art in the Washington DC area. She is also a contributing writer to The Studio Visit online magazine. She has been the recipient of grants from Montgomery County, Maryland and the Vermont Studio Center; and has had residencies at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts (2014), the Cill Rialaig Artist Retreat, Ireland (2015) and at The Tyrone Guthrie Center, Ireland (2016).

jackiehoysted.com

Dinner Party Download

I envision scenes as a blend of the real, surreal, and virtual overlaid with an inner commentary and bound up by contemporary social conventions. In every sense, the figures are trapped in an image. They are confined to the scene in appearance, thought, behavior. My work attempts to expose the restraints, repetitions, acquiescence to social norms, acceptance of convention, and dissolution of original expression.
Although my paintings, actors, and sets are painted by hand, they are intimately informed by a digital aesthetic and often attempt to hide evidence of the painter’s touch. This juxtaposition, or tension between the hand imitation the digital through familiar settings, strikes a chord within the viewer that persuades them to reexamine how they fit into their own realities.

Rives Wiley, born in 1990, is a painter and video maker working in Washington, DC. She received her BFA from Rhode Island School of Design in 2013. She recently attended Vermont Studio Center, was featured in Maake Magazine, and was selected as a Hamiltonian Fellow. Her work is currently in a two-person exhibition at the Pataphysical Society in Portland, OR, and she will debut an installation at Satellite Art Fair during Miami Basel this December. Dinner Party Download is her first solo exhibtion.

riveswiley.com