Misplacing the Concrete

What happens when what looks steady turns out to be unstable? In 2017, Anna Garner witnessed a fall from a shifting boulder in the Southern California desert. The experience sparked her curiosity about the volatility of a form normally assumed as being stable. A large rock that was mistaken as steady, despite its mass and solidity, despite its stationary appearance, was moved by the imbalance caused by the weight of a human body. Garner took the incident into her studio and began dissecting it philosophically. She gradually began interpreting it as a metaphor for the photographic image and how its documentary status often fails to match objective reality.

In "Misplacing the Concrete," Garner combines linear and non-illusionistic photographs with sculptural works to investigate stability of verticality, the fixed photographic viewpoint, and the body’s containment within and by geometric forms that seek to further destabilize scenes of imbalance.

Anna Berenice Garner is an artist working in performance, sculpture, photography, and video and is based in México City. Her work is held in the permanent collections of The San Diego Museum of Art (San Diego, CA), The Federal Reserve Board (Washington DC), The Museum of Fine Arts Houston (Houston, TX), and The National Museum of Women in the Arts (Washington DC).

Now on view in Lambla Gallery though October 10, "Misplacing the Concrete" will have a reception on September 17.