The latest exhibit in the Slocumb Galleries of Ball Hall will certainly resonate with any ETSU student familiar with the hardships of small town life.
Jo Ann Walters’ “Where was it, the World?” exhibition features a set of stunning photographs of what remains in America’s forgotten rural and industrial towns, and takes a peek into both the life and decay in these former economic outposts. Masses of neglected, entangled machinery contrast with glimpses into simple small town life in these pseudo-apocalyptic pieces.
“She has seen how these towns which used to be really industrialized, really progressive, have really decayed,” Director of the Slocumb Galleries Karlota Contreras-Koterbay said. “So her work is a kind of nostalgic documentation of the world then.”
Each photograph was taken over a period of two – mostly in a small town on the Mississippi River delta, where Walters was born and raised – but a few also come from Bristol and Kingsport.
Each picture tells a story and shows a sight bound to be familiar to anyone who has visited a former factory or mining town. Buildings now left dilapidated stand looming in the distance; work sites are obscured by a thin curtain of trees veiling a work site lying dormant in the snow just beyond; small businesses dot the town’s heart; and life is seen in the faces of children and their dogs, each innocent to the uncertain future before them.
This neglect and desolation, the small-scale feeling emitted by these photos, has a significant, thematic meaning beyond simple documentation. Just as these people in the economic world have been ignored, ignorance in the world of art also perches above the exhibit.
“There’s a trend in the art world where women artists are not given that recognition,” Contreras-Koterbay said. “It’s a recent trend in the art world of reclaiming that; giving recognition to women artists who have been practicing but have not been given enough recognition in the past.”
Those interested in meeting the artist are welcome to come to the gallery’s event on Feb. 11 from 5-7 p.m. for a gallery talk and reception.
