ELEANOR OAKES
In ‘Residual Loop’ backdrops are presented as empty and stained; the subject removed. These works play on the boundary of the seen and the unseen. They reference the stages of vibrant renaissance still lifes, while simultaneously implying the backdrops of a modern photography studio, a façade designed to separate subject from environment. As the cloth’s own weight cause it to sag gradually, its imperfect edges suggest a realm beyond the surface while simultaneously obstructing us from seeing it. Although documenting a physical scene, the transpired event is unknowable. They ask the viewer to play an active part in their experience, to make their own interpretation of events. As with memory, the most interesting landscapes are formed in the areas between what we know and what we can perceive.
Born in New York, NY, Eleanor Oakes is a photographic artist currently based in Detroit, MI. She earned her MFA in Art Practice from Stanford University and a BA in Art and Art History from Princeton University. Her work has been exhibited and published internationally, including solo exhibitions at Belle Isle Viewing Room (Detroit), Tyler Wood Gallery (New York and San Francisco), and the University of Notre Dame (Indiana), with recent group exhibitions at Reyes | Finn (Detroit), Wayne State University (Detroit), Filter Space (Chicago), and Radius Gallery (Santa Cruz, CA). She is the recipient of a Flourish Fund grant from Culture Source and the Andy Warhol Foundation, a Murphy and Cadogan Contemporary Art Award from the San Francisco Foundation, an Applebaum Emerging Artist Residency, the Anita Squires Fowler Award, among others. Oakes is Assistant Professor of Photography at the College for Creative Studies and was the Founder of Darkroom Detroit, a 501(c)3 non-profit with the mission of making photography more accessible in Detroit.