Ithaca College

Exhibiting artist Ben Altman will speak about his work currently on display at the Handwerker Gallery, as well as other projects from his studio practice. Altman's talk will occur at the gallery on Thursday, December 1, at 6pm, followed by an opportunity to ask questions and experience the exhibition.

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THE MORE THAT IS TAKEN AWAY: BEN ALTMAN

On view through Sunday, December 11, 2016

Mass graves indicate a society in major crisis. Ben Altman is fascinated by the turning points of modern history and how they form our world. Many such events have taken violent and massive scales; he mourns, memorializes, and reclaims these intractable events by recording performances at his home and by visiting sites of atrocity. Altman’s photographic practice explores the roles of perpetrator, victim, and bystander, with previous bodies of work documenting memorial sites and their tourists, signage, architecture, and landscaping.  The More That Is Taken Away is a multiple-year meditation using the mass grave as a central image. Fashioning a monumental earthwork in his own backyard by long-term excavation, modification, and repairs, Altman attempts an open and personal engagement. He hopes, through protracted labor and obsessive photographic and video documentation, to avoid moral certitudes or the static gesture of a formal monument. Altman is informed by the inheritance of a familial Holocaust narrative, his own upbringing in postwar England, and his subsequent emigration. He uses his practice as a tool for both personal and public ownership of collective trauma.

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All exhibitions and events at the Handwerker Gallery are free and open to the public. The Handwerker Gallery is open Monday, Wednesday, & Friday from 10am-6pm; Thursdays from 10am-9pm; and Saturday & Sunday from 12pm-5pm. Individuals with disabilities requiring accommodations should contact Mara Baldwin at mbaldwin@ithaca.edu or (607) 274-3548. We ask that requests for accommodations be made as soon as possible.

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