Happiness, love and loss are at the heart of Ohio artist Kate Shannon’s exhibit coming to the Southland.
“You Deserve More” is on display Sept. 26-Nov. 1 at Moraine Valley Community College’s Robert F. DeCaprio Art Gallery in Palos Hills.
“The photographs are from a series that I’ve been working on for several years. The series is called ‘Within the Happy Crowd,’ ” said Shannon via phone from her home in Columbus, Ohio.
“They’re photographs that I take in crowded places where people have paid admission fees and they’re there to have fun, like amusement parks or fairs. Then I digitally manipulate the photograph, usually isolating just one or two figures in the frame.
“I’m really interested in what people look like when they’re isolated from the crowd and also what people look like when they’re supposed to be having fun.”
“You Deserve More” is slated to feature approximately 15 photographs and three animations.
“The animations are a series where I’m referencing these outmoded advertisements that I see in Ohio a lot, like inflatable advertisements or stuff like that, so they are related. I’m interested in consumerism and happiness and desire. Hopefully they’ll all work together in the space,” said Shannon.
Although Shannon has been part of group exhibitions in Chicago at ARC Gallery, Logsdon 1909 Gallery, Woman Made Gallery and Zhou B Art Center, “You Deserve More” marks her inaugural solo show in the Chicago area.
“I’m excited to share my work,” she said. “I’m excited for the opportunity to exhibit at the community college. I’m excited to see people that are interested in coming out.”
Shannon, an associate professor of photography and digital media at the Ohio State University at Mansfield, said things have advanced greatly since she started working in her fields of expertise.
“When I started my education, we were working in the darkroom and digital photography was just starting to emerge. As a student I really got to see it grow and now as a teacher I’m seeing advances,” she said.
“One of the most fascinating things I think about photography now is our ability to integrate it with computer technology in a way we hadn’t before. Photography has always been manipulated but now it’s easier than ever for us to insert our hand into time and space and make images we see in our head.”
Those advancements do not come without a price.
“It’s an exciting time for photography and it’s also a really challenging time because now everyone has a camera. Everyone is a photographer,” Shannon said.
“I read recently that a trillion photographs were taken last year. In a world where so many photographs are being made and everything has been photographed in every single possible way, how do we cut through that noise as artists and make some things that are unique?”
Shannon said photography offers a window to the world.
“I really like how photographs show me the world in ways I don’t normally think of it or see it,” she said. “The photographs give me this fraction of a second frozen in time. There are all these little secrets in a fraction of a second that I find fascinating.”
Jessi Virtusio is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.
‘You Deserve More’
When: 9 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Mondays-Fridays Sept. 26-Nov. 1 and during most Fine and Performing Arts Center performances
Where: Moraine Valley Community College’s Robert F. DeCaprio Art Gallery, 9000 W. College Parkway, Palos Hills
Admission: free
Information: 708-608-4231 (Rachel McDermott), www.morainevalley.edu/fpac (click Art Gallery under Season Overview) or www.kateshannon.net
Etc.: features work by Kate Shannon; reception from 10:30 a.m.-noon Sept. 26 with artist talk at 11:30 a.m.
