Baltimore-born artist SHAN Wallace’s exhibition 410 is, in the photographer’s words, a love letter to the beauty, complexity, and resilience of her hometown. Representing highlights of her evolving, relational practice of the past five years, Wallace will be crafting an immersive environment that engages her newfound interest in collage, the connective possibilities of different museum spaces, and the expressive potential of portrait photography. In conjunction with the artist’s presentation in the Museum’s Contemporary Wing galleries, Wallace will also be engaging Baltimore audiences through portrait sessions and workshops at the BMA’s branch location within Lexington Market. The historic market is a site of sustained interest, investigation, and outreach within the artist’s evolving practice.
Outdoor installation of five collage murals.
For five months I posted up at the Beatties Ford public library in Charlotte. The very last Monday of the month, community members, residents, young teens, grandmothers, families, elderly voters, single parents, everyday working people, full-time working mothers and fathers all congregate to have their portrait taken. I value the everyday people of Beatties Ford, getting through these tiring times, clocking-out at their jobs, making it through rush hour with a car full of kids, just in time to have their portrait right outside their backyards.
Many of the sitters, would come every month, maybe by themselves or friends and family they invited. Each encounter and each capture meant so much to me. I always ponder on our moments together, like the father standing on the side watching his daughter stand strong with the upmost confidence or when the elderly grassroots organizers would peek in and see the locals sit proudly in the wicker chair. I would also pair strangers together and every time someone made a new friend. Some of my most proudest rewards and memories include the Beatties Ford Family. Even better, everyone received a copy of the photograph. To me, it’s really a way to keep the photo album legacy, or living room photo galleries alive and ongoing.
Personally my most treasured possessions are photographs of my family and loved ones I miss deeply.
Documented an organization from Washington, D.C who helped with the Flint Water Crisis. The organization disturbed and delivered over 1,600 cases of water. Also served over 60 families with food, clothing, supplies, and photographs accompanied with encouraging letters. In addition to helping out moving over 5,000 cases of water at Flint Southwestern Academy.
Southern Constellations Fellow. October 2018. Installation view. Museum collection mannequins, wire mesh, and found objects; spray paint; photographs. Dimensions variable.
How do we remember? How do mourning and rituals look culturally? How does adaptation to marginalization and social exclusion influence one’s role in accessing memories, and their capacity to mourn? What does that look and feel like?
The Banshee Unde[rage] is testament of the past and present, not as fixed narratives but a multiplicity of experiences with grief, memory, and mourning. Inspired by WALLACE’s own personal revelations, including the beginning of her “‘Saturn Return,’ have been a challenging but spiritual transitional period [for her].” The installation serves as a testimony of Black folks who share experiences and are familiar with mourning through memories.
WALLACE curated and transformed this 3rd floor room into a vigil with a raw aesthetic and familiarity to the vigils within Black culture, especially ones in Baltimore experienced by the artist. Each piece in the project serves as a construction of historical and cultural collections of symbols to (re)connect and represent memories and mourning. Unde[rage] prompts audiences to join her in mourning.
Wheat Paste project in Baltimore