LORNA BIEBER, IMAGE MYTHS
April 10–June 3, 2012

One of the most beautiful and haunting things about Lorna Bieber's photographs is the pull of time that they embody, the way that one is drawn into and through them, as on a journey.

The journey unfolds before the viewer in a lattice of paths across a mountainside, or in the eyes of a dog—paused for a moment on the way to someplace we do not know—but can imagine. The photographs begin with found images; they originate in an unknown place, at an indeterminate moment, and through someone else's eyes, and are then embraced by the psyche of the artist through intense looking, physical re-working, and careful arranging. Areas of each image are singled out and altered in relationship to the whole, and this creates a vision of place that feels strangely composited like the landscape of a dream. Surely part of the reason that we know we have seen or visited these places before, is because the hand of the artist summons us into the work. Roland Barthes referred to this as the punctum of the image—the mysteriously charged space of affinity. Like myths, Bieber's photographs engender shared memories, both real and fantastical.

A related exhibition, Lorna Bieber: Fractured Narratives, opened at the Addison Gallery of American Art in October 2011, curated by Allison Kemmerer, Curator of Art after
1950 and of Photography. The exhibition title, Image Myths, is drawn from an essay by curator Lisa Hostetler, Curator of Photographs, Milwaukie Art Museum.

For one week during the exhibition, Lorna Bieber will be in residence at Reed College, working with students and faculty, and with Portland Public School students through the Open Gallery Program, the Cooley's no-cost educational outreach initiative.

A printed publication featuring an essay by art historian Doris Chon accompanies the exhibition and is available free of charge at the Cooley Gallery.

LEFT
Lorna Bieber, Two Trees, Gelatin silver print, 68 x 42 in., 2004,
Courtesy of the artist.