Person-place dynamic seen in ‘who where we’
Three Milwaukee artists examine our relationship to place in “who where we” on display at the Walker’s Point Center for the Arts through Jan. 7.
Photos from Barbara Miner and Lois Bielefeld and drawings from Stephanie Barenz highlight how people define places and how place defines people.
Miner comes from a journalistic perspective, photographing people in places. The exhibition features photos from her series “Anatomy of an Avenue” and “53206: A Dream Deferred.”
Miner visually documents how North Ave. acts as a dividing line in the city in “Anatomy of an Avenue.”
Eight photos from her series travel the length of the avenue from a Saturday night at the Oriental Theater on the east side to a Fourth of July parade in Brookfield at the western end.
Another six photos come from “53206: A Dream Deferred.” Miner said she wanted to break away from stereotypes of the area defined by mass incarceration, foreclosures and violence. “53206 has been for some time an iconic ZIP code of all that is wrong with the central city of Milwaukee,” Miner said. “But there’s 30,000 people who live there.”
Bielefeld’s “Weeknight Dinner” series shows people in their homes eating a typical evening meal.
The subjects in the 12 pictures define their dining space, such as the image of JoAlice eating dinner on a Monday night at the head of her kitchen table, alone.
The total series comprises 78 photographs taken between 2013 and 2015.
Barenz’s works of paint