Wonderers

The title of Justine Kurland's work at the Nelson (UC Davis)

Today, I went to the Richard L. Nelson Gallery to view the new photography installation by Justine Kurland titled “Wonderers.”  The exhibit captures the essence of vagrancy and sadness, and at the same time, freedom and wonder.  The images caught in the seven different photographs are scenes that for the most part, I have witnessed before: a homeless man asleep under a freeway overpass, a make shift home in the wilderness.  Except these pictures were so intense, so real, that even though I have experienced homelessness in my everyday life, these photos made it seem much more up close and personal.  And to my surprise, it was not as shameful or as degrading as I normally feel looking at vagrants in real situations.  I almost began to envy the freedom and the carelessness that these men and women processed.  That’s a funny word to talk about in relation to the homeless: “possess.”  Sure, these people do not possess much in the way of material goods, but they possess the freedom of time without commitments, the freedom of being in nature without humans around to ruin it.  Kurland’s use of bold, saturated color in her photography makes the images very much like how the human eye would see them if a person was standing in front of the scene instead of looking at a photo.  In one image, the leaves of the trees are super green and lush, and the skin of the wandering travelers is bronzed from days and days in the sun.   

Justine Kurland at the Nelson (UC Davis)

On the other hand, the picture of the “suicide bed” (which is a homeless person’s bed made up next to a train track in a dark tunnel) is very grey, dim, and almost sour to look at.  There is risk in the photograph as well as tangible fear from the onlooker than death could happen at any moment if the person in the bed were to roll over at the wrong moment.  Also, the design of the exhibition is laid out in such a way where you walk along and look at these big photos one after another which I think is very effective in the gallery’s space.  I highly recommend anyone and everyone to go look at the show.  Another fabulous artist at the show is Cutter Collective, go see!

Cutter Collective at the Nelson (UC Davis)