In Power and Agency, mundane, literal spaces are paired with abstract images to create physical and ideological spaces of waiting. The photographs are quiet moments, making space for thoughtfulness from the viewer. What agency does one have while waiting? Waiting for a doctor, a divorce, a job change, a new president, an announcement of impending war, an end to a global pandemic? What power do you have?
In the exhibition installation, space itself becomes an opportunity to wait. The arrangement of photographs on the wall becomes a physical moment of pause when one image reaches across the wall to another. Some images hang loosely, fluttering as bodies pass by. Other images are traditionally framed, held tightly by their wooden restraints. The contrast between the large, loose images and small, rigidly framed ones play out the tension between control and flexibility. The environments refer to human presence, but lack bodies, giving a sense of both emptiness and expectation. The viewer becomes the waiting body in the space they are viewing as well as the space in which they are standing. The two room installation includes a waiting room, implying an inside and outside while one waits for the expert. On which side are you? Who has the power and authority? Why? Who or what are you waiting for? What can you do while you wait? Viewers are invited to become participants by answering these questions on a sign-in clipboard.