Page Bond

Today it is rainy blue and cold outside yet the page bond gallery is still open on Tuesday at 10am. I approached the glass door to find it was locked, yet a sudden knock knock knock opened the door in front of me. The host greeted me with a menu so to speak of the art being shown. The sheet informed me that Maggie by Elijah Gowin was being shown. I looked at the art in a counter-clockwise fashion leading me back to the entrance in which I came.

The art being shown there was boring at first but picked up the pace in the few images once I started to feel a relationship to the subject matter. The grandmother, Maggie portrayed in the images jumps around in the date the picture was taken so it is hard to get a hold of the time line. Several of the images show Maggie with strange and unfamiliar objects made out of household everyday household materials. These objects bring many things into question about the work. It made me wonder what the relationship of the objects is to Maggie, the photographer and Danville. Danville is the location of which these images are contrived. Maggie is seen holding or looking at many of these objects, some outside and some inside of her house. I got the feeling that Maggie might be confused as to what is going on herself and maybe the photographer is taking advantage of a possible medical condition of Maggie, alzhimers. Maggie is not shown in the 1970's with any of these objects or strange things around her. I was led to assume that the photographer has placed these objects to make for a better image. The images are effective but I feel as if the earlier images are not needed to achieve this purpose. The earlier images serve a different purpose I believe and that is to give the viewer a sense of reality. When building a relationship with Maggie through viewing the images we become accustome to her face. We can see Maggie aging in front of our eyes, reminding us that death is close to everyone. The striking color image is very effective in raising numerous questions for the viewer. I wondered if Maggie had a skin disease or was of mixed race. Overal I thought the exhibit was effective in showing someones life, but it leaves me to question how staged the images were.