Stephanie Taiber: An Inner Meaning; Almost Expressed
Friday, May 22 – Jun 20, 2020
Update: Stephanie Taiber will be at the gallery every Tuesday from 11 AM - 1 PM and Thursday from 3 - 5 PM—stop by to ask her about her work!
Filter Photo is pleased to present An Inner Meaning; Almost Expressed, a solo exhibition featuring the work of Stephanie Taiber.
“I am interested in the shift between how a woman is seen and how she sees herself. This tension that arises between internal and external constructs of female identity is an undercurrent that continues to shape my work. My concern with the psychological realities associated with abuses of power, sexual assault, harassment, and/or daily forms of systemic silencing led me to begin research on Virginia Woolf’s life and writings. I have come to recognize, through repeated readings of her novel Mrs. Dalloway, a pervading silence that had come to define me.
An Inner Meaning; Almost Expressed tells the story of my process for finding voice later in life, referencing autobiographical moments of marginalization or hope, musings of worth, vulnerability and power, and rhythmic patterns of self-reflection. I experience natural oscillations of longing and withdrawal. Inside these essential moments, I am exploring the dynamic between ideas of intimacy and a perpetual distancing from myself. Here, where I feel both need and needed, I rely upon a veneer of vulnerability and conventionality as a purposeful appliqué in protecting my privacy. Sexuality and strength emerge only outside a framework of prescribed behaviors oftentimes designed to empower others.
The use of pink allows me to flow in and out of public and private female sensibilities and to connect a chronology of moments into a sequence dictated by impact. The color itself hinting at a presence, attaching and recoiling from an implied cast of others. I also look to the physics of waves, a motif in Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway, as a metaphorical foundation for my image-making. Waves ascribe to the patterning of emotional fluctuation and the perpetuity of endurance. I am constructing a rhythm, like waves, like breath for the act of being a woman.”
–Stephanie Taiber
Stephanie Taiber is an artist based in Chicago, IL. She holds a BFA in Printmaking and Photography from the University of Arizona. Through her art practice, Taiber explores the tension between internal and external constructs of female identity. Taking special interest in the role relationships and memory play in shaping self-perception, themes of attachment, privacy, and trust converge in her introspective narratives.
Taiber has exhibited nationally and internationally and has been featured on several online photography platforms including Float Magazine, Fraction Magazine, Photo Emphasis, and Aint-Bad. Her first artist’s book, titled Bearing His Flowers, is scheduled for release in May 2020 by Chicago based publisher, Candor Arts. Recently, Taiber was selected as a Top 100 artist for Aint-Bad Curator’s Choice 2018, a 2018 Review Santa Fe 100 Photographer, a Top 20 Finalist for Brighton UK’s Open ’18, and a Top 10 Finalist for Klompching Gallery’s 2017 Summer Fresh Exhibition in New York.
This exhibition is partially sponsored by The Illinois Arts Council Agency.