ARTIST STATEMENT
I asked thirteen incarcerated men if they would like to have a photograph of a place from the outside. I asked for specific instructions on how to make the pictures. My collaborators drew diagrams, maps and wrote descriptions based on their memories of the place. I then traveled to each location and made the photographs. The requests were of childhood homes, high schools, places of happiness and sadness, courthouses and places where their lives were irreversibly altered. Photography as a medium becomes the way to bring an image from the outside to the inside. At its core, this collection (and the artist’s book Pictures from the Outside) explores how an architectural space is remembered after years of incarceration. But the work evolved to an exploration of urban spaces, a reflection on changes due to gentrification, and in general, the psychological effect that architecture has on shaping our lives.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Chantal Zakari is an interdisciplinary artist, designer and a Professor at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Tufts University. In her work, she draws upon contemporary social issues by making connections through personal narratives, history, and popular culture. Her studio practice freely combines research methodologies and artistic strategies borrowed from photography, documentary, performance, storytelling, installation, graphic design, and social interventions. Under the imprint of Eighteen Publications, together with her partner Mike Mandel, they have published hers and theirs collaborative artist’s books. Her work was reviewed in Artforum, ArtPapers, Afterimage, Wired, Le Monde, Boston Globe, Lenscratch amongst other publications. She has shown her work at The ICP NY, ICA Boston, Lothringer13 in Munich, FotoFocus Cincinnati, amongst other venues. Zakari’s work is in the collection of Yale University, the Addison Gallery of American Art, and her artist’s books are in many private, public, and rare book collections.
© Chantal Zakari