Bright City WILD
2ND STREET LANE - MACON, GA
ON VIEW AUGUST 6, 2021 - SPRING 2022
Opening night photos by David Batterman
A major public art experience bringing light & photography to Macon's unique alleyways, featuring work by local and regional photographers.
This year, the artists explored the theme WILD. Their photographs capture the beauty, serenity, fragility, and ferocity of nature as it relates to Macon. Each artist in the exhibition shows that through their lens they can transform the everyday into something curious and illuminate the WILD side of this booming Georgia city.
Featuring: Bill Brookins, Andy Carter, Heidi Clinite, Taylor Hembree, Curtis Hertwig, Zhairie’ Hightower, Seth Lloyd, Melissa Macker, Marryam Moma, Dsto Moore, Tyler James Newton, Matthew Smith, & Charlie Watts, with sculptures by Ruth Stanford.
GALLERY GUIDE
On NewTown Building
Hortophilia, Charlie Watts
Neurologist and author Oliver Sacks coined the term hortophilia to describe a craving to engage with nature. Titled after Sacks’ charming neologism, I’ve begun to capture the profound satisfaction humans feel when surrounded by natural splendor, and how women play a significant role in protecting the planet from certain environmental disaster.
For too long, women's contributions to environmental protection have been overlooked. This discrepancy in acknowledgement reflects larger systems of sexism and racism. With that in mind, I approached my current series Hortophilia as an opportunity to imagine the positive change that could come if women who are passionate about environmental sustainability are encouraged and supported in their work.
Sacks additionally defines hortophilia as the management of nature. My interpretation subverts capitalist-driven demands that the environment be tamed or made to serve humankind’s ravenous consumer needs. “Stewardship” is a more apt term in this instance, as it evokes both interest in and respect for the planet beyond the profitable resources it offers us. Visualizing this attentive care not in activity, but in women's presence in these settings. The still figure who kneels in a placid lake, or who presses her skin against that of a tree, are witnesses and guardians of the life that plunges deep beneath and arches gracefully over the untamed surfaces on which they rest.
Hortophilia gestures to contemporary efforts—insufficient as they are—to address climate change and avert the cataclysm that awaits if we fail. It also challenges familiar, outdated conceptions of femininity, gender expectations, vulnerability, and power as portrayed in visual art. These compositions evoke the cultural construction of women in nature that spans more than 500 years of Western art history. Across visual media, men have been portrayed as civilization’s celebrated architects whose success was attributed largely to their gender. Women, by comparison, were portrayed as passive, nurturing creatures whose sole purpose was to support their male “superiors” as they endeavored to conquer the natural and constructed world.
Bloom Field, Andy Carter
I captured this image in an overgrown median off of Eisenhower Parkway. Much of this area has fallen into disrepair over the past couple of decades, and yet, nature has reclaimed these small patches and provided glimpses of Macon's natural beauty. This project inspired me to find one of these tiny slices of surprisingly beautiful intersections of the city's natural and urban landscapes.
Bee on Blueberries, Melissa Macker
Blueberry plants are most loved for their fruit, but they are beautiful year-round. In spring, the buds emerge, tinged with shades of green and pink, followed by white bell-shaped blooms. Their beauty attracts bees who play an important role in pollinating the flowers, ensuring that fruit will come. The slower days during the pandemic provided an opportunity to stop and enjoy the weekly changes of spring in our own backyards. This photo captures the acrobatics of the bee as it goes about its work, delicately hanging upside down to get inside the tiny blueberry flowers.
Waterfall, Mike Young
Climate change is showing itself in all sorts of ways, from flooding to drought, and I thought this urban waterfall resonated wild.
On Fashion Ave Building
Red Brick and Ivy, Matthew Smith
The vibrant painted brick exterior of a building in downtown Macon as it’s slowly being enveloped by vines. I find the various contrasts in this shot to be interesting. Architecture and nature. Progress and blight. Complimentary colors. Symmetry and organic randomness. All of these powers are competing against each other within the frame.
Electric Aura, Marryam Moma
At the core of my art practice, I aim to empower and uplift the black body, especially the black female body. Unveiling the magic within this race, breaks collective contemporary stereotypes. Thus, changing attitudes and perceptions of black women, allowing society to re-discover her: Powerful, complex, beautiful, revered, and valuable. My collages are focused on elevating the importance of the black experience and body.
Empowering that body through my work, I create collages within a rigorous subtractive process that is layered, detailed, textured, and yet minimalist on delivery. Like a mystery, the composition evolves one piece at a time. I continue to edit and employ possible elements and media to complete the piece.
It is my intention to change the dynamics of how the black body is viewed in a society that is divisive versus inclusive. My work raises awareness that sparks discussions around traveling back inwards and making space for reconciliation with self and other. I ultimately hope to create a space in which the black body is celebrated.
To Macon, with Love, Marryam Moma
At the core of my art practice, I aim to empower and uplift the black body, especially the black female body. Unveiling the magic within this race, breaks collective contemporary stereotypes. Thus, changing attitudes and perceptions of black women, allowing society to re-discover her: Powerful, complex, beautiful, revered, and valuable. My collages are focused on elevating the importance of the black experience and body.
Empowering that body through my work, I create collages within a rigorous subtractive process that is layered, detailed, textured, and yet minimalist on delivery. Like a mystery, the composition evolves one piece at a time. I continue to edit and employ possible elements and media to complete the piece.
It is my intention to change the dynamics of how the black body is viewed in a society that is divisive versus inclusive. My work raises awareness that sparks discussions around traveling back inwards and making space for reconciliation with self and other. I ultimately hope to create a space in which the black body is celebrated.
Moss Tropolis, Heidi Clinite
Constantly amazed by the beauty, big and small, of this town, I often stop on my walks and bike rides to snap a pic of unusual sights. I get excited when I find moss and lichen in unexpected places and when their colors intensify after some rain. This patch found in an old hexagonal brick sidewalk on Vineville Ave.The view from above seems like a satellite photo of a futuristic sprawling green city, hence the name, Moss Tropolis.
Reap The Harvest, Zharie’ Hightower
Reap the Harvest was a dedication to anyone that comes out on top in any situation. Due to all the trials and tribulations that life brings, somehow we all find our way above ground. No matter what twists and turns may occur in life, remember to keep going. What you sow is what you will reap. May your harvest be plentiful. - Blacc Mel
Take a Walk in Shoes, Dsto Moore
The shoes in the portrait are my Grandfather Buddy Barron’s shoes; he's 100 years old.
On The Rookery
Hoop Dreams, Bill Brookins
A basketball hoop can usually be found in any state in our country. Kids play in school for fun and exercise and some for scholarships. Women and Men have used it to become major athletic stars. If you don't have one, you can buy one and set it up yourself. If you practice hard enough, your dreams of playing professionally could even take you to the Olympics and more. A few minutes after taking this photo, two kids came to play basketball together. A basketball making that swoosh… sound when it passes through the net and not touching the rim is a sound that you will never forget! -BBP
Dipper Over the Earth Lodge, Tyler James Newton
The Earth Lodge at Ocmulgee Mounds Historic Site in Macon, GA. The Lodge is thought to have been built ~950 A.D. This was a meeting place for Mississippian peoples and the Muscogee Nation. I added in the night sky, as the site is closed after hours. I wanted to imagine what it would have been like to live here and look up at the stars. I shot the Big Dipper in dark sky country, just outside of Talbotton. I thought it worked to symbolize freedom.
DECK, Seth Lloyd
As you can see I named this photo "DECK" instead of "Alley" or "Rain" or any other sort of name I could have obviously used. This was due to the fact that the mission this day was to showcase some of the parking decks in downtown Macon. I have stared out of this view many times in my life, in moments just like this one, and knew when I was downtown this day I had to go capture the shot since the rain was rolling in over the city.
Cicada In Spider's Web, Curtis Hertwig
One day, in my yard, I discovered a very large cicada trapped in an expansive web of a much smaller spider. It was a battle royale over whether the cicada would get free or the spider would be able to feast for days. In the end, the spider won. Nature is simultaneously kind and cruel.
CLYDE, Taylor Hembree
Found on the streets of Macon, Clyde is as free as he is wild. Clyde is a rescue dog who has in turn rescued many people.
Be You, Dsto Moore
Dsto Moore is a photographer from Macon, GA, born and raised in the Pleasant Hill Neighborhood. For Bright City, he’s captured a beloved local celebrity.
Bright City is curated & produced by Dashboard
Presented by NewTown Macon
Made possible with support from the Community Foundation of Central Georgia and the South Arts Cross Sector