Alyssa Minahan
A figure emerging from water, a moth pausing on glass, a solitary cloud in a clear sky, Alyssa Minahan’s work is transitory, and her images seek to capture the ephemeral. One gets the sense, watching fog rise over the landscape or flowers curl into themselves, that you are witnessing a decisive moment caught, then gently slowed. The sense of movement transforming into stillness reflects the reality that Alyssa’s work is growing and evolving as she and her sons, often the subjects of her work, experience their own life changes.
It is fitting that Alyssa describes her work at this moment as occupying a liminal space. For her sons this is the period between childhood and adolescence, and she notes that a veil is drawn between her and her children as this shift occurs. The nod to altered vision is apt, for in her work Alyssa distorts the view of materials that we think of as being transparent, such as glass, or water, so that they instead appear as if enveloped in an opaque haze. Her works are both landscapes and portraits, and when viewed together they speak to each other as companions. From figure to landscape, elements move in and out of the picture plane, gliding from foreground to background, meeting in the in-between.
Jessica Roscio, Curator Danforth Art, Contributor to the Initiative.
A distant expression revealing an interior thought. Invisible threads are broken, never to come together again. Grouped together, these photographs represent a testament to this shifting relationship, a transitory moment in time.
Out of
The stillness
Of my breast
Emerges
The rising moon;
And when I turn to look at it ---
The moon
In clumps of cloud.
- Shotetsu
As my two sons enter the liminal space between boyhood and adolescence, I reconcile my changing role as their mother. A veil is being drawn. I observe the near imperceptible moments that signify their independence. The soft flesh of a young boy transformed into muscle and sinew. A distant expression revealing an interior thought. Invisible threads are broken, never to come together again. Grouped together, these photographs represent a testament to this shifting relationship, a transitory moment in time.
Alyssa Minahan
Biography
Alyssa Minahan is an artist and photographer based in Boston currently pursuing her MFA in photography at Massachusetts College of Art and Design. She has exhibited her work at numerous galleries and museums, including Danforth Art Museum, Griffin Museum of Photography, New Art Center and Photographic Center Northwest. In addition, Alyssa was recently selected to participate in the PRC 2016 Juried Student Exhibition and A Process 2.0, a performative exhibition curated by Der Greif Magazine.
Visit: Alyssa Minahan