2005 Juror's Statement
The ARCHIVE project presented by Tara
Fracalossi is both intelligent as a concept and well resolved from a formal
point of view. It opens a space for the viewer to include his/her perception and
input. Subjects such as representation, memory, time,
meaning, and the search for an order are all issues included in this piece. The
awareness of the impossibility to find “the ultimate meaning and order of
things” and its unresolved quality is what, in my opinion, makes
Craig J. Barber’s project Rural New York, successfully combines the great beauty of his photographic images with the strength of the content he wants to convey. Barber seeks to “de-sentimentalize our appreciation of American rural life and make us aware of its present decaying reality where decades of cultural and governmental neglect have created a depressing landscape of fallow fields and distressed communities that have taken to turning in on themselves.” Without any doubt, the artist has achieved his goal of making us aware of this social reality and, in doing so, has given us a gift a harmony and beauty, the same qualities that he would like, ideally to regenerate in the real Rural New York.
- Liliana Porter, October 2005
Liliana Porter is a Hudson Valley
resident who currently teaches Art at Queens College in the City University of
New York. An award winning artist whose talent has garnered her a 1980
Guggenheim and three NYFA grants, Ms. Porter has shown her work at venues
internationally and is represented by the Todd Hosfelt Gallery in San Francisco,
CA and in collections including the Museum of Modern Art in NYC, Museo Tamayo in
Mexico City, and the Museo de Bellas Artes in Buenos Aires.