Between Exhibit and Talk

The reception for Holiday Moments was a success! Like a big party in which one can both be and watch the wallflowers, an exhibition reception is a public experience with intellectual aspirations. But if I could have shadowed each visitor to find out what their true thoughts were on each photograph, I would have. Alas, I was needed to explain the show and to acknowledge the many friends, old and new, who arrived to show their support.

I took the time to return to the exhibition space a few days later and looked at photo essays with a more sober eye. I can honestly say that this was an original endeavor for Georgians. Students here either pursue art and photography where they can produce visual works based on their aesthetic merit or they specialize in culture or social analysis through the medium of this or that social science. But my project aimed to combine the two and I can confidently say that these students excelled in their charge. In various degrees and through different approaches, each essay and its accompanying text sought to explain the relationship between images as vivid recollections of a moment and the knowledge that anchors these images in the certain social and cultural reality.

I was particularly impressed with the creativity of Kristine Bebia, who in her quiet steadfast way refused to take my advice and limit her "capture" metaphor to two installed items.

Instead she presented each of her stunning photographs (one is to Qvara Guledani's credit) as caught through some form of human intervention, be it a fishing hook, netting, mouse trap, cage, or butterfly net.

The explanation in her accompanying written text was a poetic exegesis on the ambiguity of the private self who cannot escape the gaze of the observer. Bravo to Kristine whom you see in the photograph on the right.

There were many Georgian journalists taking interviews and a solid crowd peaking at about 70 people. Academics, friends, family, and the merely curious were all present. I will talk about the project within the greater context of my dissertation on Tuesday, February 2nd (5:30) at the offices of Caucasus Research Resource Centers (CRRC) at 16 Zandukeli Street in Tbilisi. This event is co-sponsored by the American Research Institute of the South Caucasus (ARISC) which also partially funded my exhibition.