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Tracey Snelling’s “Woman on the Run”
Offers Psychological Tension in Multimedia Installation
NASHVILLE, TENN. – (July 20, 2011) – The work of California-based artist Tracey Snelling, whose sculptures of highly detailed vernacular buildings, streets and rundown neighborhoods show a keen sensitivity to the psychological tensions and hidden narratives of modern life in small-town America, will be presented in the Upper-Level Galleries in an exhibition entitled Tracey Snelling’s Woman on the Run, on view Sept. 9, 2011–Feb. 5, 2012.
Woman on the Run—a large tableau of architecture, sculpture, film, video, neon signs, audio and materials drawn from everyday life—provides a film-noir-like setting for a crime story in which a mysterious woman in Arizona is sought for questioning in the murder of her husband.
Throughout the installation, views seen through windows and overheard conversations offer clues as to whether the woman is victim or femme fatale, enabling the viewer to become both a witness and an actor in the story.
By placing the viewer in the position of voyeur, Tracey Snelling calls attention to the ways in which film noir and other elements of popular culture have shaped our shared consciousness.
The exhibition, which is being organized in collaboration with the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art (SECCA) in Winston-Salem, NC, is accompanied by a gallery guide that will include essays by Frist Center Associate Curator Trinita Kennedy and SECCA Curator Steven Matijcio.
About Tracey Snelling
Tracey Snelling earned a B.F.A. from the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque. Her work has been featured in solo exhibitions at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, UT, Mission 17 gallery in San Francisco, the Stephen Cohen Gallery in Los Angeles, the Museum of Art and History in Santa Cruz and the Houston Center for Photography in Houston, TX.
Prior to creating sculpture, Snelling worked primarily in photography. The sculptures composing her current work often begin as photographs she has taken or found. She captures her sculptures in realistic settings, creating surreal scenes that reveal complex relationships within the environment she has created.
Exhibition Credit
Tracey Snelling’s Woman on the Run was organized by the Frist Center for Visual Arts, Nashville, Tennessee, and the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art (SECCA), Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
Sponsors
Presenting Sponsor: Morgan Keegan.
The Frist Center for the Visual Arts is supported in part by the Metropolitan Nashville Arts Commission and the Tennessee Arts Commission.
Related Public Programs
Friday, September 9 Artist’s Perspective: Tracey Snelling
6:30 p.m.
Auditorium
Free. Seating is first come, first served.
Join California-based artist Tracey Snelling as she discusses the work presented in Woman on the Run, an exhibition of her work on view in the Upper-Level Galleries from September 9, 2011, through February 5, 2012. Snelling’s sculptures of the vernacular—buildings, streets, and rundown neighborhoods—show a keen sensitivity to the psychological tensions and hidden narratives of small-town America. A large tableau made up of wooden structures, videos, projections and other mediums, Woman on the Run provides a film-noir-like setting for a crime story in which a mysterious woman is sought for questioning in a murder.
Friday, September 16 “Femme Fatale” Film Series: Out of the Past
7:00 p.m.
Free. Seating is first come, first served.
Tracey Snelling’s Woman on the Run, on view in the Upper-Level Galleries from September 9, 2011, through February 5, 2012, provides a film-noir-like setting for a crime story in which the mysterious Veronica Hayden is sought for questioning in her husband’s murder. Viewers of Snelling’s installation play the part of witness, actor, and detective, and are charged with figuring out of what type of woman Veronica Hayden really is. Inspired by this constructed alternate world, the Frist Center has planned a five-part film series exploring femme fatales and their identities: are they are heroines, duplicitous dames or something in-between?
About the film:
A private eye evades his past by hiding out in a small, non-descript town and running a gas station until one day his past catches up with him. Left with no other choice, he returns to a world of danger, corruption, double crosses and tricky women in order to finally put his past to rest. Stars Robert Mitchum, Jane Greer and Kirk Douglas. Directed by Jacques Tourneur, 1947. 97 minutes. 35mm. Not Rated.
Friday, October 21 “Femme Fatale” Film Series: Psycho
7:00 p.m.
Free. Seating is first come, first served.
Auditorium
Marion Crane, a fugitive from justice who just embezzled money from her employer, stops at the Bates Motel one night while she is on the run. Wanting respectability, Marion’s plan is to marry her debt-ridden lover and erase his financial woes. Unfortunately for Marion, Norman Bates, a strange young man with an extremely possessive mother, sets a trap from which she cannot escape. Certainly Hitchcock’s most unrelenting exercise in terror, Psycho remains one of the most terrifying films of all time. Stars Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh and Vera Miles. Directed by Alfred Hitchcock, 1960. 109 minutes. DVD. Not Rated.
Friday, November 18 “Femme Fatale” Film Series: Double Indemnity
7:00 p.m.
Free; first come, first served
Auditorium
Walter Neff, an insurance agent, and Phyllis Dietrichson, a greedy, blonde bombshell, plot to bump off Phyllis’ husband and collect the premiums. Leaving behind the standard New York setting of lower-class crime, this definitive film-noir of the 1940s takes place in a California of shady streets, supermarkets and stucco houses. Stars Fred MacMurray and Barbara Stanwyck. Directed by Billy Wilder, 1944. 107 minutes. 35mm. Not rated.
About the Frist Center
Accredited by the American Association of Museums, the Frist Center for the Visual Arts, located at 919 Broadway in downtown Nashville, Tenn., is an art exhibition center dedicated to presenting the finest visual art from local, regional, U.S. and international sources in a program of changing exhibitions. The Frist Center’s Martin ArtQuest Gallery features interactive stations relating to Frist Center exhibitions. Gallery admission to the Frist Center is free for visitors 18 and younger and to Frist Center members. Frist Center admission is $10.00 for adults and $7.00 for seniors, military and college students with ID. College students are admitted free Thursday and Friday evenings (with the exception of Frist Fridays), 5–9 p.m. Discounts are offered for groups of 10 or more with advance reservation by calling (615) 744-3247.The Frist Center is open seven days a week: Mondays through Wednesdays, and Saturdays, 10 a.m.–5:30 p.m.; Thursdays and Fridays, 10 a.m.–9 p.m. and Sundays, 1–5:30 p.m., with the Frist Center Café opening at noon. Additional information is available by calling (615) 244-3340 or by visiting our website at http://www.fristcenter.org.
