Local artists collaborate for 'FRANK In Focus'

CORRECTION: Due to a reporting error, an earlier version of this article inaccurately paraphrased Amanda Hughes by saying she was interested in the opinions the panel photographers had about the limited perspectives in the Triangle. The following quotation also added an incorrect phrase about “the forensics” photographers carry out. The Daily Tar Heel apologizes for the error.

In a new and innovative way, local artists are coming together to create unique visuals in FRANK Gallery’s exhibit “FRANK In Focus: Inspired by the Lens.”

Working with the North Carolina Museum of Art Consortium, Barbara Tyroler, the gallery’s community outreach coordinator, put together the collaborative project.

A panel discussion will be held at the Ackland Thursday with professors from UNC and Duke University, gallery artists and area photographers.

“Inspired by the Lens” was inspired by FotoDC, a festival which originally ran for a week, but is now active year round.

Tyroler said she wanted to transfer the wonderful sense of community she felt at FotoDC into the Chapel Hill area, so she put together this exhibit to bring together various artists.

“Barbara has been really actively trying to get artists to work together, not just in the sense that they usually do where they form a committee and plan a show, but to create artwork together,” said Torey Mishoe, the gallery’s manager.

In the exhibit, Tyroler worked with FRANK artist James Oleson for a photography project. LeCluyse overlaid wood patterns onto photos of a nude woman in a dark pool lit from the sides that Tyroler took.

“You have a bunch of women in a swimming pool at night… talking about bodies and aging bodies and the ways bodies are changing,” Tyroler said.

Oleson, a retired surgeon who worked with cancer patients, used ambrosia maple wood that was infested with ambrosia beetles.

“It holds the idea of infestation and intrusion into the surface and into the body,” Tyroler said.

Tyroler said she thinks the theme of the project is about collaboration and bringing the Triangle-area artists together.

But UNC journalism professor Cristina Fletes-Boutte, who will be presenting at the panel, said the project is about finding the story behind the picture.

“I like my images to tell stories,” she said.

Her piece in the exhibit is from a portrait she took of a blues musician outside a juke joint in a small town in Louisiana.

“This musician, he was kind of just passing through, in and out, his expression I think to me just spoke so much,” Fletes-Boutte said.

“We didn’t talk a whole lot so I don’t know much about him, but what he left on the image for me I feel like I just learned so much about him from the image, and I wouldn’t have had that if I didn’t take it. So I think it’s about photography’s ability to make a passing moment into an indelible image.”

Amanda Hughes, Ackland’s director of external affairs, said she is interested in hearing the panel photographers’ opinions on how they explore the boundaries of the picture frame.

“I think one of the great mysteries of photography broadly is how to explain the picture,” she said. “And how does the metaphorical lens of our experience begin to really impact what we create as art makers and documentary photographers.”

The exhibit features artists from FRANK who create in all different types of mediums, and the eight presenters from the Ackland range from traditional photography to modern, conceptual pieces of art.

“We wanted to make it as broad as possible and as inclusive as possible to be able to have as many artists participate in a very open format,” Tyroler said.

arts@dailytarheel.com