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Against the Tide at Whitespace points up need to truly see women past, present
March 13, 2019
ArtsATL.org
By Rebecca Brantley

Against the Tide, on view through March 23 at Whitespace Gallery, brings together photography from three artists and SCAD Atlanta professors – Suellen Parker, Sandra-Lee Phipps and V. Elizabeth Turk. The title refers to a common idiom that implies resisting cultural norms. Fittingly, the show runs during Women’s History Month.

Turk’s Tremulous Anatomies series shows abstracted figures in ghostly silhouette against a darkened background, each with the name of a mythological woman. Turk uses an analog, camera-less technique that dates to early 19th-century processes. A model is arranged atop light-sensitive paper in direct sun, her body creating an unexposed area of white. Turk then creates patterns and textures within the silhouette using materials such as fabric and plants. Each piece is a singular, irreproducible work. The model’s identity is obscured, and this lack of specificity makes each piece an elegiac ode to archetypal notions of femininity. Read More.