Works by Rosamond Purcell At Rochester’s BigTown Gallery

Works by Rosamond Purcell At Rochester’s BigTown Gallery

"Rosamond Purcell: Taking Chances," will be on display from October 11-November 16 at the BigTown Gallery on Main St. in Rochester. The exhibit will kick off with a lecture by the artist Saturday, Oct. 11 at 3 p.m., followed by an opening reception from 5-7 p.m.

Purcell notes that, "‘Taking Chances’ includes work drawn from several decades and reflects my preoccupations with disintegration of material objects, with natural history, words, books and the history of World War I, as assembled from fragmented newspapers or fashioned into surreal landscapes."

Since the early 1980s, Purcell has worked as a photographer in natural history collections in Europe and the United States, and since the late 1980s, has assembled what she calls "a large collection of ruined, formerly useful objects."

"‘Still Life’ in photography is often a misnomer, for when set in natural light everything has a pulse," Purcell said. "In my work, it is the light that changes from frame to frame, and it is light that animates whatever is set before the lens."

In the mid 1980s, Purcell came across an enormous derelict antique and junk yard in Maine and dug in for 20 years of observational haunting of the place. Although, by then, she was a devoted photographer, those years were divided between practicing photography in natural history museums and writing literary soliloquies about Owls Head, Maine.

The BigTown Gallery is open Wednesday-Saturday from 10 a.m.-5 p.m., and Sunday, from 11 a.m.-4 p.m., Monday and Tuesday by appointment.

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