Northlight Gallery presents 'Beyond the Fence'
The ASU School of Art in the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts presents the photographic exhibition, Beyond the Fence March 8 – April 9, 2011. The exhibition’s title references the fence being completed along the U.S./Mexico border, and is the third in a series that examines regional issues. Beyond the Fence is hosted by the Northlight Gallery on the ASU Tempe campus. A public reception at the gallery is scheduled March 8 from 6-8:30 p.m. A public lecture with photographers Emily Matyas and David Taylor is scheduled March 9 at p.m. in Katzin Concert Hall.
Beyond the Fence features the work of four photographers whose images delve into the complexity of the U.S./Mexico border issue. Their images tell a multifaceted story of border patrol agents, drug smugglers, government officials, undocumented workers and families left behind, the clash of traditional values and contemporary culture, and the environmental effects on a delicate, biologically diverse land.
Emily Matyas is a U.S. citizen living in Tempe, Ariz. who has been traveling and photographing in Sonora for more than two decades working with the nonprofit organization Feed the Children. Personal stories accompany her black-and-white images of the children and families this organization serves. Her images honor their documentary origins while becoming metaphors of hope, loss, and determination.
Alejandro Cartagena is a Mexican citizen living in Monterrey, Mexico where he photographed the clash of traditional values and contemporary culture that resulted in sprawling developments that lack basic services, and destroyed the rivers and their ecosystems. His images are designed to call for social reform and responsible governance.
David Rochkind is a U.S. citizen living in Mexico City, Mexico. Rochkind’s photographs focus on the drug war and the debilitating effects of its violence on the people of Mexico by eroding communities and governments. His images portray powerful depictions of corruption, violence, and desperation.
David Taylor is a U.S. citizen living in Las Cruces, N.M. He was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2009 that helped him complete this body of work that documents the complex job of the border patrol. Taylor’s privileged access to border patrol activities resulted in images that depict the daily threats that agents face.
The interweaving of these images by the four photographers intimate the global consequences of the drug war, the economic and social pressures that lead to migration, and the personal devastation in the private lives of communities.
All Beyond the Fence activities are free and open to the public. The Beyond the Fence exhibition is March 8 – April 9, 2011. An artists' reception is March 8, 6–8:30 p.m. Both events are held in the Northlight Gallery, room 101 in Matthews Hall on the southeast corner of Tyler and Forest Malls on the ASU Tempe campus. The public lecture is March 9, 7 p.m. in Katzin Concert Hall in the ASU School of Music, 40 E. Gammage Parkway on the ASU Tempe campus.
Northlight Gallery hours: 12:30-8:30 p.m., Tuesday; 12:30-4:30 p.m., Wednesday-Saturday; closed, Sundays, Mondays, major holidays and summer session.
Liz Allen, lizallen@asu.edu
ASU School of Art
(480) 965-6517