From July 22 to September 18, 2021, Madison-based photographer Lindsey Rothrock shared her series ¿Te Ubicas? on the mezzanine at ALL. An artist reception will be held on Friday, September 10, 2021 from 7-9pm. The exhibition is free and open to the public. Gallery hours are currently Thursday through Saturday, 12-5pm, or by appointment, with the exception of Saturday August 14 and August 21.
Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, face masks and social distancing are required within ALL's facilities.
Artist Statement
One morning during a summer in Peru, some friends walked with me to a market where I’d never been. Later, I had to find my way home — alone. Before I left, one of them asked me,
¿Te ubicas?
Do you know where you are? Literally: Do you locate yourself?
I’ve thought deeply about this question. In this world where our physical places are so fleeting—where we can drive 50 miles in under an hour, fly it in a fraction of that, or pick up and move across the country at the drop of a hat—how do we locate ourselves?
Places are our constant companions. We get to know them, we like or dislike them, we love and hate them, we overlook them and find solace in them. No matter where we are, so is place.
In ¿Te Ubicas?, bodies act as the context for place instead of place acting as the context for the body. Instead of considering the relationship between a body and the place that currently holds it, the images ponder how the historical experience of place is carried within the body through memory, and how that affects our self understanding.
How we understand ourselves in terms of where we are must be informed by where we’ve been. In order to locate ourselves, then, we are compelled to take into account our physical surroundings. We walk and drive over the roads of our neighborhood, breathe in air particular to our latitude and longitude, see sunsets and plants and dust and weather specific to our locale.
Place impacts us, shapes our bodies, imbues our spirits. How are our bodies extensions of our places, and places extensions of our bodies? When we die, we become one with the earth - ‘ashes to ashes, dust to dust.’
Let us consider together how place affects us while we live.
