Wright Lab featured in photographic exhibition at the Yale Center for Collaborative Arts and Media (CCAM) through November 22

person in front of photographs
October 29, 2019

Wright Laboratory is the subject of a new photographic exhibition by Monique Atherton, “Photographs of the Wright Laboratory,” on view at the Yale Center for Collaborative Arts and Media (CCAM) from October 28 through November 22, 2019.

The exhibition includes photographs from Atherton’s essay, “Yale’s Wright Laboratory: A Photo Essay,” composed for the new Maquette journal from CCAM, which was also released on the same day at an opening reception for both the journal and the exhibition.  

The photographs portray Atherton’s interpretation of how the machines in the lab behave, and how their functionality is hidden to the human eye. The exhibition captures the essence of the lab, with some photographs shot through a prism to incorporate spectral rainbows into the picture. With a prism between the camera and subject, distortion was brought to the picture through reflections of angles that were not directly in front of Atherton and her camera. Printed with ultra-violet cured ink on Dibond,  which are composites of two pre-painted sheets of .012 inch aluminum with a solid polyethylene core, the photographic production process mimics the clean lines of the halls in the Wright lab that lead into the various nodes of activity.

About the artist

Monique Atherton was born in Japan, and currently lives and works in New Haven. She studied photography at San Francisco Art Institute and received her M.F.A. in Photography from the Yale School of Art in 2016.

Using photography as a launching point and incorporating installation, sculpture, and performance, Monique Atherton explores intense, personal moments created by means of rules and omissions, acceptance and refusal, luring the viewer into the various microcosmic states in which she exists. Her works aim to uncover unspoken desires, tensions, and passions that reside on a subconscious level among the people in her images as well as between the artist and her public.

Atherton has exhibited in Washington D.C., San Francisco, New Haven, and New York. She has been an artist-in-residence at the Wassaic Project and a recipient of the 2018 Connecticut Office of the Arts Emerging Artist Grant. Her book, “First Avenue” was shortlisted for the 2017 Kassel Dummy Award. 

External link: