The Norton Museum of Art hosts the photographer’s first solo exhibition Fabiola Menchelli titled Certain Silence. It is presented like this.
Menchelli’s work engages with the materiality of photography, and the works featured in the exhibition will consider a range of conceptual theories, including visual perception, the relationship between viewer and artwork, the language of abstraction, poetry, and more. Comprised of over 20 works, including a selection of previously unpublished pieces, his photographs test the limits of perception by folding, exposing and expanding works that may appear simple but contain complexities arising from chance and accident, all created without camera or negative. His artistic process involves an understanding of guiding light, an essential practice of photography. She has spent her career studying theories of light, color and perception, including how to master light-sensitive chemistry in the darkroom, an often unforgiving place. Menchelli creates these colorful, abstract, sculptural photographs without using negatives or a camera, thereby emphasizing the norms of the medium and working against them. To do this, she must work blindly in her color darkroom, guided by touch, memory and sound. She created a coding system for each transparent color gel, so she knows exactly what she is taking to insert into the photographic enlarger, which is her only source of light. Although his process is complex, the artist prefers that viewers approach each work with their own points of reference in order to create an experience that is completely personal to them. “For me, the darkroom is not just a room in my studio, rather it is a state of mind, a meditative space where I can stop thinking logically and create images by negotiating movements and exposures between the paper and my body,” explains Menchelli. “The process of doing this work is laborious; it becomes a physical means of locating meaning that requires a reorientation of my body. All other senses compensate for the lack of vision, creating a feeling of deep concentration. It is a kind of ritual that requires a calm and steady flow in order to cope with the unexpected.
The exhibition “Certain Silence” was organized by Lauren Richman, William and Sarah Ross Soter Curator of Photography at the Norton Museum of Art.
Fabiola Menchelli: Certain Silence
Until March 23, 2025
Norton Museum of Art
1450 S Dixie Hwy
West Palm Beach
Florida 33400
www.norton.org
