Viewing Michelle Rogers’ exhibit, “Le Temps Retrouvé / Revisiting the Past,” is a curious experience.
Modern photographs — silver gelatin prints — are camouflaged as antiques, combined with vintage postcard images, creating affinities between different places and times. And as you negotiate these imagined stories, you have a companion along for the ride: an enigmatic traveler in a bowler hat.
There’s not much we can say for sure about the figure, who reoccurs in many of the 20 pieces on the walls. He — or she — wears a bowler hat, sometimes uses a walking stick, never faces the camera. One thing that’s for certain: he’s well traveled.
Come take a look at the triptychs, flip through the artist’s scrapbook, and find the black-hatted stranger. He’s only one part of the mystery around these photographs; one you can content yourself to puzzle over for a while.
Or, you could ask the artist yourself and see if she’ll give you an answer. The opening reception for this exhibit, and “Small and Large Works,” is tonight.
“Le Temps Retrouvé / Revisiting the Past”
November 6–December 1, 2014
Opening Reception: Thursday, November 13, 6:30-8:00 pm