Shane Prine: 'An Unlived History"

As an artist, my goal is to capture an elegiac quality in subjects both animate and inanimate. A phrase that, I believe, encapsulates my most recent work is “an unlived history.” A central theme of my work is memory- what informs memory, how does it change over time, why is that memories are often romanticized… or how is it that nostalgia or trauma often color memory accordingly. Other related ideas contained here involve questions of identity and belief.

Much of my precious work contains a thread of the autobiographical since I believe there is an authenticity to creating personally-revelatory bodies of images, In the work presented here, I have used found family photographs and an historical process that combine to evoke memories faded by time. The twist in this new work is that the imafe are not of my own family history: they are images obtained from rolls of film found in old thrift store cameras. The role of the viewer of these works is to- through the the process of psychological transference- infuse the images with their own assumed narratives. Since family photographs are a universal feature of most peoples’ lives, the intention of these images is to serve as a form of archetypical substitute to evoke memories of the viewer’s own past. What I continually strive against in my artistic endeavors is ‘to make pretty picture;’ rather, I’d prefer to create compelling, thoughtful works of art. Each of the images presented here is a unique, one-of-a-kind print made by contact printing an image from a digitized negative to stained cold-press watercolor paper using the Van Dyke brown photographic printing method.

This exhibit is among many ongoing programs at North Central College to enrich and broaden the cultural and academic outlook for the college and community. North Central offers a variety of venues accommodating a rich range of local and world-class events, performances and space needs for the public. For a comprehensive schedule of musical performances, theatrical and dance productions, art exhibits and more, visit northcentralcollege.edu/show or call the box office at 630-637-SHOW(7469).