ELIJAH BARRETT: ROCKPORT

Opening: Friday, May 3rd, 5-8 PM (Lockhart First Fridays)
Open by appointment: email info@spellerbergprojects.com

Leading up to the second anniversary of Hurricane Harvey (2017), Spellerberg Projects presents a new installation of Austin-based artist Elijah Barrett’s work of photography, Rockport.

The series unfolds in a small Texas town along the Gulf Coast in the aftermath of the storm. On its surface, the group of photographs takes the form of a conventional photo essay, but its vantages are more oblique and open-ended, generating a retelling that is as searching and ambiguous as it is documentary.

Rockport is a disorienting, fragmented account of a time between times; a witnessing of the aftermath of the last storm and the anxious anticipation of the next one. From the bare description of the destruction, to the blinding saturated colors, to the bright glimmer of light, these photographs ask us to reflect on the natural impulse to shield one’s eyes or divert one’s attention from what is overwhelming and the strain that is required to see hard realities more clearly.