The Photography Gallery at Riley Hall is proud to announce Everlasting Remains—an exhibition of photographs by Mitch Eckert. The exhibition is September 6, 2024, and will run until October 11, 2024.
Everlasting Remains
What will future researchers learn about our civilization after it is lost to climate change? Will our trash middens reveal our casual acceptance of single-use containers and our dependence on plastics? These are questions I think about as I create paper replicas of our plastic grocery store produce containers and arrange still-lifes in the Dutch tradition exploring the concept of memento mori. However, my thoughts are not on our own mortality, but on the mortality of our planet.
Everlasting Remains is a series of Kallitypes of altered artificial fruit and produce containers recast in paper pulp. The earthen hues and organic chemical process of the historic photographic Kallitype technique complement and contrast the inorganic subject matter. The original plastic containers were used to package and transport luscious fruits to my local big box grocery, while the artificial fruits were sourced at a craft shop. Unlike the half-eaten meals in Dutch still-lifes which serve as memento mori or reminders of death, these plastic containers and even the Styrofoam niche I have constructed will never really die and decay, serving instead as reminders of our complicity in the casual destruction and death of our planet.
When working within the still-life tradition, there are both limitations and opportunities. I oversee every aspect of the process, including replicating the plastic food containers in paper pulp, modifying the artificial foods, creating the niche, and setting up the scene. I sculpt with light while taking photographs to create tableaux that feel like newly discovered artifacts, like what you might find in Pompeii. The projected image on the ubiquitous forms of the produce containers creates a pentimento or memory of what was once inside.
Mitch Eckert is a one-eyed photographer. The medium of photography chose him, and it made perfect sense – one eye and one lens play well together. His work has received many accolades has been exhibited nationally and internationally, and appears in a variety of publications, from textbooks to journals. After receiving his B.F.A. in photography and sculpture from Indiana University, he went on to earn an M.F.A. from Ohio University, focusing on photography and printmaking. His technical knowledge of photography is well rooted in the medium's rich historical processes, including his masterful works in Kallitype. For Mitch, the choice of photographic equipment, process, and materials needs to have a good marriage with concept and content. His exploration of the genre of still life has been ongoing for more than 25 years. Other projects revolve around cabinets of curiosities, botanic and formal gardens, as well as natural history museums. His work is held in the collections of 21c. Museum, Butler Institute of American Art, and several corporate and private collections. Mitch Eckert currently lives and works in Louisville, Kentucky, where he is an Associate Professor of Art teaching all things photographic.