Sep 7th 2018

Lodoe Laura: 163

@ Filter Photo

1821 W Hubbard St, Ste 207, Chicago, IL 60622

Opening Friday, September 7th, from 6PM - 9PM

On view through Saturday, September 15th

Filter Photo is pleased to present “163,” a solo exhibition of work by Canadian artist Lodoe Laura, at Filter Space gallery. The artist will be joining us for the closing reception and will give an artist talk at 7 PM!

In the last ten years, 163 people have self-immolated in protest of the conditions inside the Tibetan Autonomous Region in China. In an independent report done by Freedom House in 2017, Tibet was second only to Syria in its lack of civil liberties. Authorities inside Tibet write a different history, one of a utopian Shangri-La in the Himalayas.

Working with the archives of Tibetan activists and advocacy groups, Lodoe Laura conducted research into the troubling trending practice of self-immolation in the Tibetan community, and collected photographs of the self-immolated. These images, usually recovered by activists as low-resolution cell phone images, function as testimony of an act of resistance, and as a critique of the Chinese government’s account of life inside Tibet. Each portrait was printed by hand using handmade charcoal ink. Laura collected charcoal incense, used in Tibetan Buddhist smoke offering rituals, from the Diaspora community following their prayers. The ritual charcoal was ground, sifted, dried, and mixed by hand with traditional ink making mediums, then hand printed onto paper; a labor-intensive process that took several months to complete.

Official Website

More events on this date

Tags: , , , ,