FRAGMENTS OF TIME
Rebecca Skinner + David DeMelim
December 30, 2020–January 31, 2021
January’s Virtual Artist Talk: Sunday, January 31, 2021, 3PM
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Fragments of Time features the work of photographers Rebecca Skinner and David DeMelim. The artists share a fascination with the passage of time in relation to the human experience, and, in this exhibition, they explore various approaches to the camera as a time machine. Skinner trains her lens on the industrial and domestic detritus abandoned in place after the inhabitants have moved on. DeMelim, by contrast, combines images representing multiple moments in time to evoke the feeling of having been present, of having shared an experience.
Rebecca Skinner
Sink III (detail)
Rebecca Skinner photographs abandoned spaces throughout the United States. She is a modern-day urban explorer seeking unique, neglected structures and desolate places. Skinner’s subject matter ranges from large, cavernous spaces to minute details such as peeling paint and rust. She is attracted to the beauty of these places as well as their history. Her locations are often dangerous to photograph in, whether because of rotten floors, falling plaster or asbestos (requiring a respirator), so she never goes alone. Skinner brings to her work a strong ethic of leaving a location exactly as found. She does not stage her photographs—there is a story there to be told and she does not alter it. She uses natural light and a tripod to create her images. Texture, color and light all play important parts in her image making.
Skinner is a Core Member at Fountain Street Gallery and a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design. Artscope and Upworthy are among the publications that have featured her work. Skinner’s photographs have recently been displayed at BSA Space, Boston, MA and the First Street Gallery, NY, NY. Her studio is located in Natick, MA.
Skinner Statement
Skinner Biography
David DeMelim
On the BU Bridge (detail)
There are no Kodak moments in David DeMelim’s work, but rather a syncopated succession of moments that combine to recall and define an event. His photography shares many of the concepts explored in Cubism—presenting multiple points of view and multiple moments in time compressed into a single image. Working in a “built-panorama” format, he seeks to record the human experience, not by capturing the "decisive moment" but by capturing the world as it is experienced, a continuous stream of images. His photographs are, in effect, single-frame movies.
DeMelim studied photography with Bart Parker at the University of Rhode Island. He is an active artist member of Providence Art Club, Art League of Rhode Island and 19 on Paper. His work has been exhibited at Newport Art Museum, Fitchburg Art Museum and Bristol Art Museum, and is housed in the collections of Lifespan and Fidelity. A career as a prepress manager afforded DeMelim the opportunity to play an active role in the digital revolution sweeping the print and photographic industries. DeMelim is Managing Director of Rhode Island Center of Photographic Arts, a member-supported photographic resource center and gallery space.
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