Freeze!: Material Cultures of Movement
Each object in the show was made through motion. Photographs used chemistry and technology to fix light in place. Hands carved and shaped household items. Machines printed text in ordered lines. Even minerals, formed in long geological processes, were mined and cut by humans.
The objects trace the boundaries between action and representation. Sculptures and photographs freeze fleeting dramas into a single moment. The images on carved seals come alive when pressed upon wax or clay. Coins and mineral specimens migrate as goods of commerce, travel, and collection. Reproductions of all sorts roam across time and space.
As you travel through the exhibition, think about how the objects reach out to each other. What connections emerge between them? Rearrange them in your imagination. How do they help you understand movement, stillness, representation, control, and resistance? The world around us is always moving—take a moment to stand and watch.
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This exhibition of objects from Bryn Mawr College and Haverford College Special Collections is supported by the Bryn Mawr College Graduate Group of Arts and Sciences in honor of the 13th Biennial Graduate Group Symposium. It was developed by the symposium’s graduate coordinators in collaboration with Bryn Mawr College Special Collections.
