Opening Reception:
Thursday, March 22 from 5-7 P.M. Gallery Talk at 6 p.m.
Simmons University presents an alternative photography exhibition and site specific installation by Edie Bresler. Based on a True Story will be on view from March 19—April 19 at the Trustman Art Gallery, located on the fourth floor, Main College Building, 300 The Fenway in Boston. A reception including gallery talk will be held on Thursday, March 22 from 5-7 P.M.
Edie Bresler will create a site-specific installation of her relational and cyanotype photography together with a new body of work that incorporates nineteenth-century anonymous photography of nudes digitally manipulated and clothed with embroidery by the artist. These works incorporate the past, the present and the fantastical.
Bresler, a 2017 Massachusetts Cultural Council award winning photographer, has a BFA from the School of Visual Arts in New York and is a MFA graduate from Lesley University College of Art and Design. She teaches and leads the photography program at Simmons University. Her projects have been featured on Good Morning America, PBS Greater Boston and in several publications including Photograph Magazine. Based on a True Story follows threads of interest in her past work. For several years she has been seeking ways to incorporate the narratives of her subjects into photographs. The Helping Hands series uses the process of blue cyanotype, a photographic method without a camera. Created in a serendipitous fashion, Bresler relies on strangers to assist her by agreeing to pause for a few minutes to create a cyanotype of their outstretched arm and hand. The myriad of hands and their positioning are silhouetted white against the blue background, reaching upwards—ethereal and ghostly. They will be installed using the height of the gallery to evoke the traces of many participants.
A new series of work called Anonymous, arose from Bresler’s fascination with 19th century photographs of nude men and women. Her altered photographs play with time, expectations and unusually—the hand of the artist. She creates a fresh context for her re-photographed depictions of the figures. They also are given clothing, provided by her meticulous hand stitchery.
Edie Bresler uses photographic methods old and new to create a magical world where anything might happen. Her photographs of poetic hands reaching upwards or her tiny clothed figures allow the viewer to see the world both as it is and might be.
Trustman Art Gallery hours are 10 AM – 4:30 PM, Monday, Tuesday, and Friday, 10 AM – 7 PM on Wednesday and Thursday. The gallery is free, open to the public and wheelchair accessible. For more information, contact Kyle Mendelsohn at (617) 521-2268 or find us on Instagram.