Field Research

Exhibition: April 5th - 9th

Reception: April 8th, 5pm - 8pm

"Field Research" is a step towards witnessing an archive. I have spent the last few months poring over 35mm negatives and notes created from 1972 to 1982 by a team of field researchers at the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts (MESDA). Seventeen young women (and one man) were tasked to travel through Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Georgia searching for decorative arts objects made in the South before 1820. I am analyzing these photos–made for archival purposes–as art objects, exploring questions of authorship, point of view, and power dynamics inherent in finding, collecting and photographing decorative arts objects in the United States. This process is one tactic towards some of my bigger questions: what is my role in history? What stories do I pass on to others, and how? Making this work has been full of surprises. It has taken a massive amount of the prefix “re-” -- re-looking, re-thinking, re-discovering, re-cording, re-cursing, re-flexing, and re-presenting. That term seems very hot right now– “re-presenting.” When I inspect this archival 35mm film, though, I really do re-look at an image again and again, and then, suddenly, as if the image itself moved, something appears in it. It’s a very strange feeling.

Thanks to Daniel Ackermann, Grace Ford-Dirks, Kelly Fu, Sylvia Hickman, Alexandra Macdonald, Elizabeth Perrill and Mathilde, Aimee Wise, my thesis committee, my classmates, and people who have been patient with me these last four semesters.

About Anna

Anna is an interdisciplinary artist who works between theater, visual art, and history. She grew up in Philadelphia, worked as a theatre person in New York, and then moved to South Carolina, where she started making pieces that look less like theatre and more like social practice. In 2020, she moved to Greensboro, where she is currently an MFA candidate in Studio Art at UNC Greensboro. When Anna lived in New York City, she focused on devising new works and performing. She has performed at The Whitney Biennial (Andrea Geyer’s "Comrades of Time"), The Public Theater (600 Highwaymen’s "The Record"), PS122, The Living Theatre, The Bushwick Starr, and many others. She has worked with The Assembly since 2010, with whom she developed "Seagullmachine" (La MaMa E.T.C.) and "HOME/SICK" (New York Times Critic’s Pick). After moving to South Carolina, Anna created art that left the space of the theatre, but continued to ask questions about storytelling, collaboration, and group dynamics. She founded an improv troupe; co-produced free outdoor Shakespeare; she worked with the Spartanburg County Library and Speaking Down Barriers, a local non-profit, to present historical documents about the Era of Reconstruction in Spartanburg County. Anna is also 1/3 of RADAR Art, a multi-disciplinary group that bridges the gap between contemporary art and the general public. Their biggest project, "Barter Boat," is a carnival stand that invites passersby to barter for miniature sculptures. "Barter Boat" has visited 10 cities across the USA, and was selected as a juried semi-finalist at ArtPrize 2018. More at www.AnnaAbhau.com.