(de)constructed Artist Spotlight: Morgan Ashcom
(de)constructed:
MORGAN ASHCOM
Open is a series of 34 photo-text pieces combining 4”x5” c-prints and printed html code. Charlottesville-based photographer Morgan Ashcom shares how chance intervened and gave new purpose to “damaged” photographic negatives.
The photographs were made in Palestine in 2009. At a checkpoint, the Israeli Defense Force opened my light safe 4”x5” film box, obscuring and flaring the images on the unprocessed film. The box of film was stored in my studio and then revisited 10 years later as the Israeli occupation of Palestine continued. I contributed the photographs to a virtual fundraiser in 2021 alongside Wajdi Yaeesh and Human Supporters Association, a Palestinian-run non-profit whose mission is to serve and support children, youth, and women in marginalized communities in Nablus. Due to internet restrictions imposed by the Israeli apartheid, Wajdi was unable to verify his identity with various financial institutions resulting in the loss of thousands of dollars in donations. The textual components of Open are drawn from html code in emails where Wajdi was asked to verify his identity. While the c-prints reference the ethnic cleansing happening on the ground in Palestine, the text references the digital and bureaucratic apartheid occurring online.
These works do not claim to carry the burden of proving anything written above. They are fictions co-authored during the collision of my film with the Israeli apartheid state and the experience of a tenacious Palestinian organizer. Revenue generated by the sale or publication of these works will be donated directly to Human Supporters Association.
Morgan Ashcom is an artist based in Charlottesville, VA whose work explores the tension between invented and experiential narratives that inform individual and group identities. Despite the realist style of his works, they are fictionalized through collaboration and context. His work has received numerous awards including Center’s Choice Awards, the German Photobook Award and the Center for Photography at Woodstock’s Photography Now Purchase Prize. Ashcom has been an artist in residence at Light Work and has taught at Western Connecticut State University, Ithaca College, University of Hartford, Cornell University and the University of Virginia. His work has been featured in The New Yorker magazine and Le Monde magazine.
Morgan is a co-founder of Visible Records, an art gallery and studio space located in Charlottesville Virginia.
(de)constructed will be on view at Candela Gallery through February 19, 2022.