Photos tell ‘Oklahoma Stories’ in Mainsite exhibit
NORMAN — Photos of state subjects in a show by Charles R. Rushton have a narrative content that is appealing and can trigger strong reactions.
The “Oklahoma Stories” exhibit is at Mainsite Contemporary Art, home of the Norman Arts Council.
Rushton said the pictures show you don’t “have to travel abroad or even outside the state to find interesting photographs.”
He challenged viewers to write responses to them during the run of the show, which closes with a reception Sept. 9.
Black-and-white and color photos of public events are especially intriguing, supplying many of the most memorable images.
A small “Boy Looking at a Man With a Bicycle,” during the Norman Music Festival, seems awed by his powerful physical presence in a black-and-white photo.
A color picture, called “Museum,” of signs portraying freaks of nature at the state fair, draws us in, like the waiting spectators, with their backs to us.
Color is even more key to Rushton’s photo of a smiling state fair “Mad Hatter,” with a blue face, red hair and lips and a wide, cotton-candy-pink band on his black hat.
Equally eye-catching are his color pictures of a man counting money under giant inflated state fair prizes, and of a “Colorfully Dressed Man” at the Norman Music Festival.
A male “Liberty Tax Service Sign Carrier,” dressed as the Statue of Liberty, promises “no waiting,” standing between American flags, in another fine color picture.
In a black-and-white photo, a grubbily clad man gestures obscenely, in front of a window sign urging us to use “technology to communicate, educate and entertain.”
ART REVIEW
‘OKLAHOMA STORIES’
Where:
Mainsite Contemporary Art gallery, 122 E Main, Norman.
11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays, through Sept. 9.
6 to 10 p.m. Sept. 9. 360-1162 or www.norman
arts.org.
“Sarcasm” is celebrated in big white letters on a man’s dark T-shirt as “the natural defense against stupidity,” in a second, biting, black-and-white photo by Rushton.
Excellent black-and-white portraits include his pictures of a smiling “Amtrak Club Car Attendant” and of a “Man With a Badge,” showing it to us. Portraying people at home well are his color pictures of a couple on a porch beside a shepherd statue and of man a checking a smartphone, while sitting behind his garage, on “July 4th.”
Also on view
Also at Mainsite is “House & Garden,” a striking show of camera-less blue and white cyanotype images on paper and fabric, by Oklahoma City artist Alex Emmons.
Emmons’ cyanotypes vividly depict such natural and mundane things as grass, bougainvillea, chairs, mower handles and blades, antlers and barbecue tools.
The New York state native said she uses “old processes,” like cyanotypes, to help viewers “explore familiar subject matter differently.”
Both shows are recommended.