Stillwater: Photographs by William Wylie

August 24–October 27, 2002
Entrance Gallery

Exhibition Reception, co-hosted by Artspace
of the University Programs Council of UVa
Friday, August 30, 5:30–7:30 pm
In the Museum

Gallery Talk and Book Signing
Sunday, September 29, 2 pm
In the Museum

Taken over a five-year period, 1997–2001, William Wylie’s new series of photographs focus on the changing river surface. The images capture the flow patterns and light fluctuations of a specific river at specific times, yet they are ageless and placeless in their description of the experience of water. Wylie, Assistant Professor of Art at the University of Virginia, found another irony in this project. "These photographs," he ntoes, "were made along an unassuming stretch of the Cache la Poudre in Fort Collins, Colorado. For its five-mile tenure within city limits, this wild and scenic river of the central Rocky Mountains is constrained to a marginalized wilderness. The Poudre can be seen from highways, shopping malls, car lots, city parks and houses. Trees, rocks, and concrete fortify its banks. Yet, just beyond the willow shoots, close to the water’s surface, the significance of place resonates. Nothing is ever still."

The exhibition is presented in conjunction with the publication of Stillwater, a book of Wylie’s photographs of the river, published by Nazraeli Press. Following this showing, the exhibition will travel to The Light Factory, Charlotte, North Carolina, the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, and other venues in the United States. The exhibition and gallery talk are sponsored by The Hook Tim and Virginia Michel, and the UVa Provost Arts Enhancement Fund.

Untitled from Stillwater, 2000
Gelatin silver pritn, 20 x 24"
Lent by the artist