Artist Opening: Jonna McKone

Join us for the artist opening with Jonna McKone (Duke MFAEDA Class of 2015)

Notes from Home
On view: September 6 - October 16, 2021
@Power Plant Gallery

By weaving together first-person storytelling, oral history, portrait photography and family archives, Notes from Home explores how the act of telling one's own story affirms personal identity and offers the chance for life experiences to emerge reframed. This process-based project was made over several years of documentary work in New Brunswick, NJ and eventually resulted in a collaborative book of photography.

In this exhibition, portraits by Jonna McKone, Center for Documentary Studies' Lewis Hine Fellow, are paired with work by contributors from the Price Family Fellows Program at Rutgers University. The stories explore ideas of family and home through archival photographs, images of family life and landscapes, recipes, maps and collaboratively developed portraits. Each artist's story considers narrative, personal storytelling and growth in unique ways. In their collective words, "the concept of family is limitless and unconditional."

In collaborating with McKone, the Price Family Fellows participated in workshops about photography, first-person writing, and collage. Each participant worked to create their own narrative of growing up as it informs the present, yet each person's story is connected through experiences with the social welfare system. They explored identity, family history, homeplaces, love, and loss. These stories are about searching for moments that hold multiple truths, representations, and strengths.