Terri Weifenbach
Photos/books

Exhibition: 9 January – 22 February 2020

Galerie Miranda is delighted to present a solo exhibition of recent works by Terri Weifenbach (b. USA, 1957), the artist's first solo show in France. The exhibition will feature selected prints from Weifenbach’s landmark series Des Oiseaux (2019), Centers of Gravity (2017) and The Politics of Flowers (2005). Given the importance in Weifenbach’s practice of bookmaking, the exhibition will also include rare artist books that will be exhibited alongside the prints. For the duration of the exhibition Terri Weifenbach will host at Galerie Miranda a cycle of private photobookmaking ateliers for small groups, which will be open upon reservation on a first-come basis.

Des Oiseaux (2019): Photographed in the garden of the artist's home in Washington DC, the images in this series capture the secret life of the many species of birds that inhabit our cities. Often photographing at ground level, the artist reveals the dives and looping spirals of sparrows, finches, and warblers hidden in tree trunks and amongst the leaves. The changing seasons are captured through the evolving colours of the garden and the artist deploys both a blurred and an ultra-precise focus that construct an intimate observation into this small and delicate world.

Centers of Gravity (2017): When working on Des Oiseaux, Weifenbach was often intrigued by details and it was natural for her to find the gestures of the flying and standing birds worth noting for themselves. She chose to separate the birds from their background and print in black and white in order to bring full attention to the birds' shapes, gestures and details. In the prints they are uniquely individual representations of a single moment. In the small softbound book, the sheer number of images, page after page, has the reader immersed as noted by Rinko Kawauchi: "The common sparrows suddenly come into view while we live out our everyday; when projected through Terri’s eyes, though, they almost act as mirrors — reflecting our own lives back to us."

The Politics of Flowers (2005): "In 2003, Weifenbach came across Pressed Flowers from the Holy Land, 19th-century books of pressed flower books published from about 1886 to 1906 by a certain Reverend Harvey B. Greene who, along 'with the assistance of native helpers,' gathered different species of wildflowers native to Palestine. The flowers were dried and carefully attached to the pages of the books, which were intended to be sold to raise funds for the missionaries. Over time, some flowers disappeared, leaving faint stains and smudges on the pages. Others, despite their brittleness, remained intact. Mute testimony to the nurturing soil and sun of the Holy Land, the delicate flowers also invoke the meticulous labor of care-worn hands that cultivated and inserted them. For Weifenbach, however, the pressed flowers were meaningful in other ways: she understood them as containing the lives and especially the traces of the pain, sadness, and loss of all those "native helpers" who gathered them. And, as flowers that had been snatched from life and preserved in death, they embodied the transience of all life. By scanning and printing these delicate flowers as largescale black and white images, Weifenbach breathes new life into these century-old specimens." (Sarah Kennel, Keough Family Curator of Photography, High Museum of Art, Atlanta, US)

Artist books: The exhibition will include the presentation for acquisition of selected rare artist books produced by Weifenbach for over 20 years with some of the best American and European photobook publishers.

Terri Weifenbach will lead 3 photo book workshops of no more than 4 people on the following dates:
Friday 17 January, 2020, 10-12am
Friday 31 January, 2020, 10-12am
Friday 14 February, 2020, 10-12am

The workshops will be hosted at Galerie Miranda, 21 rue du Chateau d'Eau 75010 Paris, France.

The cost is 180 Euros per person, a non-refundable deposit of 50 Euros is requested upon reservation.
Please contact the gallery for reservations: enquiries@galeriemiranda.com