Hammond, LA- Organized by and from the collection of the New Orleans Museum of Art, this exhibition is the largest presentation to date of works from Josephine Sacabo’s Salutations series. In Salutations, Josephine Sacabo (American, b. 1944) combines collaged and distorted photographic images with a wet collodion on metal process that dates back to the 19th century to create a world that is barely recognizable as such, hovering like a memory or a dream in the space between the concrete and the ineffable. Throughout the work, half-materialized visions of certain elements appear and reappear—an apple, a bird, a window, the female form—as if to suggest some kind of narrative is buried under the layers of fractured representation. But the project as a whole resists any linear reading, and instead concerns itself with establishing an enigmatic set of conditions—loss, solitude, melancholy, nostalgia, etc.—that create a space for interpretation. In other words, rather than tell any particular story, these works set the stage for a number of potential stories that hinge upon these broader concepts. In balancing on the threshold between the real and the surreal, these images favor the poetic over the prosaic and the symbolic over the literal.
“Josephine Sacabo’s work has long challenged assumptions about the documentary nature of photography. In this new body of work, this challenge takes center stage. It pushes the boundaries of photography in serious, intellectual ways while at the same time providing a powerful emotional experience.” Russell Lord, Freeman Family Curator of Photographs
Josephine Sacabo: Salutations is organized by the New Orleans Museum of Art.
An opening reception for “Josephine Sacabo: Salutations” will be held at the Hammond Regional Arts Center on Friday, May 11 from 5-8 p.m. Admission to the opening reception is free and open to the public. During the opening reception, Josephine Sacabo will give a presentation on her photography on display in the exhibition, “Josephine Sacabo: Salutations” beginning at 6 p.m.
Josephine Sacabo’s images will be on display during the HRAC’s annual Membership Gala on Friday, June 1. The membership gala is open only to current members. To become an HRAC member, please visit hammondarts.org/support-and-membership.
Throughout the duration of the exhibition, the HRAC will have copies of Josephine Sacabo’s books available for purchase. The exhibition will be on display from May 9-June 30. HRAC’s gallery hours are Wednesday-Fridays from noon to 6 p.m.
About Josephine Sacabo
Sacabo divides her time between New Orleans and Mexico. Both places inform her work, resulting in imagery that is as dreamlike, surreal, and romantic as the places that she calls home. Born in Laredo, Texas, in 1944, she was educated at Bard College in New York. Prior to coming to New Orleans, Sacabo lived and worked extensively in France and England. Her earlier work was in the photo-journalistic tradition and influenced by Robert Frank, Josef Koudelka, and Henri Cartier-Bresson. She now works in a very subjective, introspective style, using poetry as the genesis for her work. Her many portfolios are visual manifestations of the written word, and she lists poets as her most important influences, including Rilke, Baudelaire, Pedro Salinas, Vincente Huiobro, and Juan Rulfo, Mallarmé, and Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz. Her images transfer the viewer into a world of constructed beauty.
About NOMA and the Besthoff Sculpture Garden
The New Orleans Museum of Art, founded in 1910 by Isaac Delgado, houses nearly 40,000 works of art spanning 4,000 years. Works from the permanent collection, along with continuously changing special exhibitions, are on view in the museum’s 46 galleries Fridays from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; and Saturdays and Sundays from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. The adjacent Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden features work by over 60 artists, including several of the 20th century’s master sculptors. The Sculpture Garden is open seven days a week: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. The New Orleans Museum of Art and the Besthoff Sculpture Garden are fully accessible to handicapped visitors and wheelchairs are available from the front desk. For more information about NOMA, call (504) 658-4100 or visit http://www.noma.org.
About Hammond Regional Arts Center
The Hammond Regional Arts Center (HRAC) supports, promotes, and coordinates visual, performing, and literary arts in Tangipahoa Parish and surrounding parishes. Our primary mission is to enrich lives through quality arts education, develop an appreciation of the arts within individuals, and introduce the public to professional exhibitions, performances and literature.
The Hammond Regional Arts Center is supported in part by a Decentralized Arts Funding Grant from the Arts Council of Greater Baton Rouge in cooperation with the Louisiana Division of the Arts, Office of Cultural Development, Department of Culture, Recreation and Tourism, and Louisiana State Arts Council.
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