Threads of Time

Extracting truths from family archives to inform present day stories is the subject of “Threads of Time,” an exhibit by Robin North that will open at The Photographer’s Eye Gallery on February 8 and run through Black History Month, ending on March 1. North, whose forebears worked as slaves in the cotton fields of Texas, has used photographs and old documents to show how his family’s personal history is interwoven with the larger history of cotton, a commodity that spelled wealth for some and bondage for others. “Two bodies of work within ‘Threads of Time’ explore the family histories of Americans of African descent, addressing forced migration, labor, land ownership, and modernity in rural, deep southern Texas,” says North, who had been working as a corporate information specialist when he decided to pursue fine art photography, earning a Master of Fine Arts at SDSU. Through conversations with family members and by studying old photographs and documents, he began to decode messages from the past and realized that there was more to those photos than met the eye. “Decolonized Aesthetics” presents portraits of black subjects using historical photographic processes and stresses the intercultural connections resulting from cotton commerce. Some subjects pose with a bale of cotton. “Part of what I want to do is take this fusion of culture and this cotton bale and bring them together, because the reason this even happened is because of cotton,” North says. “That’s how this body of work came to fruition.” In "A Way of Looking," North visits places in the rural South that are connected with his family’s past and links them to the present. “A lot of my work focuses on looking backwards,” North says, and consequently we see his back as he faces away from the camera and looks toward an old church, toward cemetery headstones, and toward an old school building that appears to be losing a battle with a devouring landscape. The church, the school, the cemetery are all part of North’s family history, which is part of the larger history of cotton’s role in a nation’s history. The Photographer’s Eye Gallery will exhibit “Threads of Time” from February 8 through March 1. North will conduct a walk-through of his art on opening day at 4 p.m., and the gallery will host a reception for the artist at 5 p.m. The gallery will also host an artist’s talk on February 9 at 10 a.m. The event is free, but a reservation is required for the artist’s talk, which can be made by going online to the website to reserve a space. The nonprofit gallery is open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, and by appointment by calling 760-522-2170. Free parking is available behind the gallery and on the street.

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