Rite of Ordinary: The Portraits

Rite of Ordinary: Interior Indiana is a conceptual, photographic documentary that examines the domestic lives of same-gendered couples living in Northern Indiana.

The formal perspective of the portraits and the austere economy of the settings investigate how classical space can provide a stage to foreground the scenes of everyday life and how the built environment shapes our sense of self. The couples are placed along an axis, not to render them static, but to suggest a journey in time with a beginning, middle, and an end. 

  • The portraits of these couples reveal more than mere facial expressions. They reveal bodies, furniture, wall decorations, and all the details and appurtenances of one’s identity. Through the assemblage of things that constitute a home, the images lead viewers to work, to speculate, and to challenge the current paradigm of “normal” regarding gender, sexuality, love, home, family, and relationships. The context of where these photographs are taken and how they are being exhibited in public spaces where their presence in the past has been hidden becomes all the more compelling.

INSTALLATION VIEWS:

By placing the images outside of a traditional gallery setting, I use the built environment as part of my art practice in dealing with social relationships. I exhibit the work Rite of Ordinary: Interior Indiana in ways that challenge the meaning of who lays claim to the home-sphere, love, family, and relationships. Projecting the images onto building exteriors like community murals, the images act not as hostile provocations but as a means for people to come together and talk about important social issues within their communities.

Installing the body of work in a home for sale, prospective home-buyers stumble unsuspectingly upon these portraits in their natural setting of where one might expect to find them. The idea of future exhibition yard sign prototypes is being developed for installation throughout city neighborhoods.

The subject matter of same-gendered couples occupying these spaces where their presence in the past has been hidden becomes compelling. Where these images were taken and how they are being shown counters the social alienation many of these couples have experienced within their own community.