Of the Ordinary Opening at PPAC 2/9/12

Charlie’s Bloody Ear, Christian Patterson

Of the Ordinary

February 9th- April 15th at Philadelphia Photo Arts Center
Opening Reception: Thursday, February 9th 7-9pm
Gallery walkthrough with the artists: 6-7pm*
Book signings with Ron Jude, Christian Patterson & Ofer Wolberger: 7-7:30pm*

The Philadelphia Photo Arts Center is pleased to announce Of the Ordinary, a group exhibition including the work of Adam Broomberg & Oliver Chanarin, Alyse Emdur, Ron Jude, Jason Lazarus, Christian Patterson and Ofer Wolberger.

At a time when photography itself is undergoing a tremendous transformation within popular culture and the art world alike, the act of appropriation has become imbued with a new kind of energy. With a galaxy of images circulating without boundaries, moving from one place to another, we can only speculate on what their final resting place(s), if any, may be. Each time the context of a photograph changes, whether it be a digital file or a physical print, the ways in which it is experienced, understood and reinterpreted will also adapt. The act of working with other people’s photographs, whether they are new, old, prints, digital files or otherwise, has been given a new relevance by the mitigating circumstances of contemporary life and image-making. This extends the mutability of meaning embedded within the medium itself and grants more permission to the viewer and author to generate new contexts and interpretations.

Of the Ordinary is comprised of imagery that was never intended to be experienced in the context of a gallery or museum. The focus of this exhibition is an interest in the political implications of portraiture, highlighting the various ways in which images are created, distributed and experienced in a contemporary setting. Many of the projects highlighted in this exhibition employ the method of editing an existing body of images to further investigate their meaning.