SEEING DOUBLES
Generation after generation have continued the tradition of gathering around the radio, television or other device during historic moments in time. For the exhibition Seeing Doubles, Michelle Thomas Richardson built upon the Screen Series, which responds to the 24-hour news cycle and the cyclical nature of history as portrayed through the media.
The concept of recycling [white noise] stories and images over time evolves as a physical mass: an architectural construction, a makeshift altarpiece, a landfill. Nearly 100 individual works echoing devices dating back to the 1890s comment on the ongoingness of social issues. Each piece acts as a singular moment in time which together play as a universal rerun, building today’s American landscape year by year. Using stacked cardboard boxes, the resulting interior space houses a short hand-drawn animation in an intimately scaled space similar to an average safe room or walk-in closet. Drawing on opposites, the work alludes to a dichotomic reality as it teeters between inside and outside, loud and quiet, black and white (red and green), art and trash, etc.
Named Tarleton State University's 2022-2023 Artist-in-Residence, Richardson developed Seeing Doubles with the assistance of Visual Art and Design students. The artist led an independent study course through which students contributed to the artwork and learned about installation artwork, non-traditional materials, and how to develop a sustainable studio practice after art school.
Mixed media
20 ft. (L) x 13 ft. (W) x 8 ft. (H)
Exhibited at Tarleton State University Gallery
February 13 - March 8, 2023
