Glen Helen Atrium Gallery Exhibition

Dance of the Happy Shades: photographs by Dennie Eagleson

November 15, 2012 – January 6, 2013

The Glen Helen Atrium Gallery is showing Dance of the Happy Shades: photographic work by Dennie Eagleson from November 15, 2012 – January 6, 2013. Eagleson has been experimenting with expired Polaroid film, creating photograms made with natural materials such as flowers and seedpods as forms, and also photographing directly from nature with a pinhole camera. The public is invited to meet the artist at the opening reception on Sunday, November 18 from 2 - 4 pm. Eagleson will speak about her work at 3 pm.

Eagleson stockpiled Polaroid Company instant print materials when the company went out of business a number of years ago. She is now working with these outdated materials for the possibility of unknown and unpredictable results. The photograms capture bursts of color from the flowers and layered lines from stems and vines. The images made using 4x5 Polaroid film using a pinhole camera have little obvious connection to their source in nature, but suggest constellations and spirit forms. She scans the Polaroid print and creates archival inkjet images.

The title of the exhibition, The Dance of the Happy Shades, refers to the disappearance of these materials and a company that was eclipsed by the digital age. It also refers to Eagleson’s method of communing with the spirit of her recently departed mother when searching for natural materials to use in the photograms. Each image made is an improvisation, a dance, a collaboration, and a way to invite her mother’s continuing presence and guidance in her life.

Eagleson is a fine art and a documentary photographer whose work is exhibited regionally and nationally. She was an Associate Professor of photography at Antioch College before its close in 2008, and is currently the Creative Director of the Herndon Gallery at the College, curating exhibitions and developing a visiting artist program.

The Gallery is located in the Glen Helen Building at 405 Corry Street in Yellow Springs. Show hours are noon to 4:30 pm Monday through Friday and 10 am to 4 pm on Saturdays and Sundays. Admission is free and artwork will be available for purchase.

For more information call the Glen Helen Ecology Institute at (937) 769-1902 or visit www.glenhelen.org.