What the Living Carry
MORGAN ASHCOM
March 2 - April 21, 2018
ABOUT THE PROJECT
Born and raised in Free Union, Virginia, Morgan Ashcom chisels his work out of the rural Americana of Hoys Fork – an amalgamated fiction of a small town, nestled in the South. Influenced by memories of his Shenandoah upbringing and deeply rooted in southern literature, Ashcom depicts landscapes obscured by climbing vines and dying brush, while everyday subjects perform menial tasks amongst their dated surroundings. Much like Faulkner’s mythical Mississippi-inspired county, Yoknapatawpha, Ashcom has constructed a place galvanized by the past – its resoluteness, and its refusal to be tied down or easily consumed.
Through a collection of hand-typed letters written by ‘Morgan,’ requesting a DNA analysis from a certain ‘Eugene’ at the ‘Center of Epigenetics and Wellness of the Spirit,’ What the Living Carry chronicles a quest for understanding. By weaving together fragments of the living with this murky, shadowed past, Ashcom’s reality provides a prompt to mythicize one’s own memories through the lens of Hoys Fork.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Morgan Ashcom’s multidisciplinary artworks and books explore the tension between fiction, myth and lived experience in the context of imperialism. Ashcom's work has been exhibited and published across the globe. He has received numerous awards, including the German Photobook and the Center for Photography at Woodstock Purchase Prize. His work has been featured in Le Monde, The Brooklyn Rail, Jewish Currents, and The British Journal of Photography.
Ashcom is former faculty of Western Connecticut State University, Ithaca College, University of Hartford, Cornell University and the University of Virginia. He is also the Founding Director of Visible Records.
He currently lives and works in Charlottesville, VA.
