Multimedia artist Dionne Lee believes almost anything can have a double meaning, even a piece of rope.

In the center of Light Work, a 40-foot piece of black hand-woven rope hangs from a pulley. This is her first sculpture, “Running, rigging and wading.” The brainchild piece of art stemmed from Lee’s interest in sailing, and the rope seeks to represent both the idea of the violence and aid that can happen with rope, Lee said.

The sculpture is a part of Lee’s exhibit entitled “Trap and Lean-to,” which runs from Jan. 13 to Mar. 7 at Light Work. Lee will be speaking more about her exhibition at a gallery talk on Jan. 30 from 5 to 7 p.m.

“I approach everything where it’s like two things can almost always be true at once,” Lee said. “There’s nothing that’s like totally pure or good.”

Lee’s exhibit also uses multiple mediums such as video and photography, trying to encompass the constantly changing American landscape and her place within its history as an African American woman, according to the exhibit’s contact sheet.

Lee’s primary inspiration for the exhibit came from the American wilderness. Lee’s art tries to intersect her interest with nature being both “violence and prosperity” and “connection and alienation,” according to the exhibit’s contact sheet.

“Forests can be a really beautiful protective space,” Lee said. “But they can also be mysterious and dangerous.”

Lee first picked up a camera during her teenage years after experiencing photography through her father and grandfather. The camera eventually grew to be a form of expression for her and helped the artist understand the world better, Lee said.

Dionne Lee’s exhibit features photographs that deal with the wilderness and survival. Lee attended wilderness survival workshops before creating the pieces in the exhibit. Courtesy of Light Work

Years later in 2019, Lee blended her passion for both the outdoors and photography when creating “Trap and Lean-to.” After attending wilderness survival workshops and jotting down notes — which later became her artworks’ titles — Lee eventually made her survival skills into art. Lee’s work features collages of black and white photographs showing activities such as building a lean-to and a fire bed.

The photographs at the exhibit also feature components from Lee’s wilderness survival guides and magazines. Lee utilizes black and white photography processed in a darkroom using a silver gelatin process. The process is an aged technique primarily used for creating black and white photographs that also allows the altering of photos.

The artist’s method of handling photographs is known to be disrupted, organic and instinctive. In a world filled with digital printers, seeing Lee’s hands-on art is what caught the attention of Mary Lee Hodgens, the associate director of Light Work and curator of “Trap and Lean-to.”

“Why would a photographer want to do this kind of process which is very intuitive?” Hodgens said. “I don’t know, but I think it is just what her genius is.”

Hodgens asked Lee if Light Work could host an exhibit for the artist in August 2019 after seeing her work featured twice in Artforum, an art magazine, and in exhibits such as Silver Eye Center for Photography in Pittsburgh.

Working alongside Lee through numerous emails, Skype calls and phone calls, Hodgens put together a master list of her art while learning what ideas came behind it.

While formatting the layout of the exhibit, Lee asked for a special request of black frames, which added greater background to her work and allowed her pieces to be presented with no glass covering.

“That connection that you have with a piece of art when it is not obstructed by a piece a plexiglass makes it different,” said James Pershing, a senior photography major at SU who worked on the exhibit’s installation. “For me, it makes it better.”

Published on January 29, 2020 at 12:25 am

Contact Christopher: cscargla@syr.edu | @chrisscargs