The Visual Arts Department’s Fall term exhibit, Caleb Cole: Present Absences, is now open to all in Crowell and West Galleries in Feigenbaum Center for Visual Arts. The opening reception was held on September 22 and was attended by the artist and guests from the Union community and beyond.
Present Absences exhibits two contrasting bodies of work by Boston-based artist Caleb Cole which explore issues of queer identity and belonging. One half of the exhibit, part of the artist’s body of work In Lieu of Flowers, is a series of memorial portraits of transpeople who have died in the US and Puerto Rico since 2020 as a result of transphobic violence and neglect. The portraits, primarily consisting of selfies found on social media belonging to the victims, were printed onto photographic paper treated with organic pigment harvested from burgundy roses grown in the artist’s own garden.
“Each picture has such profound meaning,” wrote an anonymous commenter on the exhibition guestbook. The exhibition invites viewers to contemplate the issues of discrimination, belonging, and identity, regardless of background.
(Maeve Baksa)
The sense of loss in In Lieu of Flowers is juxtaposed with the group portraits of Odd One Out, set on opposite sides of the gallery. Odd One Out is a collection of vintage group portraits collected from antique shops and thrift stores, which the artist has digitally altered to white out all but one individual. “In constructing these images, I tell the story of the outsider, the odd one, those who are alone in a crowd,” writes Caleb Cole, citing a sentiment familiar to all of us, but especially to those in the LGBTQ+ community.
