CHRIS VERENE
Home Movies
November 29, 2014 - January 17, 2015
The new exhibition of Chris Verene, his second at Postmasters, will consist of a group of photographs and a
series of projected short videos, all depicting his family and other families in the small city of Galesburg,
Illinois, whose lives were drastically altered in the 2008 economic downturn.
Chris Verene:
"My cousin Libby's farm foreclosed, and she has moved in with family in order to survive. Nothing has replaced
the missing links in the city's economy. In 2011, my cousin Candi, who has appeared in my work since the 1980s,
lost her house, as did many of her former co-workers. Candi and her four children ended up living at a campsite
outside of town. Candi attributes the loss of her job and her husband's job to the collapse of their marriage,
and indeed, divorce is a subject we have agreed to make public."
"My friend for over sixteen years, Amber, is the head of a family in daily crisis. In 2003, Amber discussed her
ambitions to have a child and a get a job, despite our town's declining economy, in a full-page interview in
The New York Times Sunday Magazine. Eleven years later, Amber is recovering from methamphetamine addiction, is
raising three young children, and has at times been homeless. She has not used in several years, yet she and her children are surrounded by the meth culture."
Difficult to watch yet impossible to stop watching, the new videos and photographs are often heartbreaking, and yet
they are filled with humanity, love, pride, and hope. We follow as Candi talks about her loss of work in 2008 and
how the banks and the collapse of Wall Street impacted her wedding. We follow Amber blowing her welfare check on
lottery tickets. We follow her in a tender moment as she gets a bouquet of flowers her boyfriend found discarded
in garbage. And we follow Amber's mother on a trip to a foodbank to feed ten people living with her under one roof.
**********
Verene walks right into the lives of his folks, showing you how they are, without any embarrassment on either side.
Their togetherness is taken for granted so openly that the viewer feels at each moment like one of them, a member of
the clan. Verene's color [is] tender, warm and sensual, though stops well short of being glamorous . . . flooding
them all with a strange, sweet romance. These pictures convey his bittersweet fondness for a smaller world in which
he grew up but no longer shares, but which has lessons to teach him about the inroads of ageing, disability and other
difficulties. Many viewers are familiar with visits back home in this mood, which Verene renders luminous and fatal.
Max Kozloff, The Theater of the Face: Portrait Photography Since 1900
Acknowledgements: Videos edited with the assistance of Christine Hucal. Audio mastering by Tom Sheponik. Thanks to Gotham Sound
for providing equipment. Additional camera operators on "Book Signing Party," Tim Gray and Tom Foley. Thanks to Carl Saytor and
Lux Lab, New York. Thanks to Cody Ranaldo, Ani Cordero, and everyone in Galesburg. Thanks to Beth Schiffer Lab, New York. Photo Credit: David Samuel Stern
"Rusting line inside shuttered factory in 2008, before the building was razed"; Photo Credit: Tom Fucoloro from "33 Months: Free Trade's Journey Through Galesburg"
Chris Verene
installation view
Chris Verene
installation view
Chris Verene
Candi and Eric's Kids in the Camper
2011
chromogenic color print
36 x 30 inches
Chris Verene
Pam as a Teenager
2008/2014
chromogenic color print
36 x 30 inches
Chris Verene
Travis's New Dad and Zeus
2006
chromogenic color print
36 x 30 inches
Chris Verene
Dan, Dalton, and Keeghan in the Demolition Derby Truck
2012
chromogenic color print
36 x 30 inches
Chris Verene
Jayden and Mercedes
2012
chromogenic color print
36 x 30 inches
Chris Verene
Brian, Mercedes, Jaylen, and Amber
2012
chromogenic color print
36 x 30 inches
Chris Verene
Amber and Her Little Brother
2012
chromogenic color print
36 x 30 inches
Chris Verene
Amber's Cousins
2008
chromogenic color print
36 x 30 inches
Chris Verene
installation view