Amanda Taves

View from a Stranger’s Window, Estate Sale No. 65
archival Inkjet print
18 x 12 in.

Through photography and installation, Amanda Taves explores the transitory nature of identity against the backdrop of a fluctuating social world. She employs commonplace elements such as dislocated objects, anonymous locations, and techniques typically reserved for criminal investigation to inspire viewer narratives. In her current series, View from a Stranger’s Window, Taves photographs windows located in the communal areas of various citywide estate sales. This perspective offers viewers the opportunity to play witness to what previous inhabitants would have observed in their private lives. Negotiating the expansive economic, political, and religious topography of Chicago’s disparate communities, this series serves to deconstruct the physical and psychological boundaries segregating the city by placing viewers centrally within the landscape. Series such as Entity of Origin (2016), Parallax (2018), Witness (2018/19), and View from a Stranger’s Window (2018) each serve as catalysts to engage with interior narratives informed by society and highlight the mutability of one’s own thoughts, opinions, and judgments; transforming the passive act of viewing into a state of active self-reflection.

© Amanda Taves