“This was now.”
Talk by Mark Iwinski

Ghost Building: Ithaca Hotel

October 9th, 2008
7pm at the History Center
Free and open to all.

The present is informed by absence and is through this absence that the past becomes visible. Lost architecture and cultural history leave traces in the urban and cultural landscape revealing themselves through gaps in the fabric of the city. From old photographs, fragments, ruins, and parking lots these terrains of absence provide enigmatic traces of “what was now” to “what now is”.

On October 9th, 2008 at 7pm the History Center will host a talk by Mark Iwinski. The recipient of a 2008 New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship in Photography, his talk, entitled “This was now”, will present his photographic work from the grant project. Drawn from the History Centers’ photographic collection and other sources, the images presented use a photo-performative technique to reveal some of the lost architectural and cultural heritage of Ithaca. He will discuss the ideas behind and the processes used to create the work and show a series called Terrains of Absence, from the ongoing project. The talk and discussion to follow are a prelude to an exhibition of the work at the History Center to be held in the Fall of 2010.

More than a critique of urban renewal or a simple ‘then and now’ comparison “This was now” superimposes past and present to create a visually ambiguous “slippage” in our present. In these rephotographs, history and the present become compressed to create spectral presences which place the artist and the viewer at the threshold of space and time.

Silent Film Still