Chu Chu and Gail Skudera: The Edge of Days

Both  Chu Chu and Gail Skudera reimagine and recontextualize the medium of photography to explore themes of memory, history, and elements of their own lives. Chu combines natural imagery with calligraphic ink painting to create abstract, multimedia works that depict objects and places that have personal significance to the artist. Skudera’s unique process involves deconstructing photographs and then manually weaving them back together with fibers on the loom, creating beautifully textured, tactile patterns, with a collage effect. Chu takes an unconventional and multi-layered approach to her photographic imagery; some works are photographed and reprocessed multiple times within a single work, creating a recursive practice to the point of nullifying or exceeding the category of “photography.” The images are altered with ink, calligraphy, acrylics, pencil, colored pencils, and other mediums. Featured in this exhibition are 23 of Chu’s works created over the last fifteen years, which span a range of styles and exemplify her fascination with the natural world and the intersection between personal and collective histories. “The Edge of Days” will also mark the first time all six pieces from Skudera’s 2022 “Above and Below” series will be shown together. In these works, the artist employs photographic transparencies to create a range of high-contrast, abstract compositions, all borne from a single found image. From this one image, a multiplicity of new images and stories emerge about connection, perspective, and endurance over time. The photographic transparencies are pieced together by hand, highlighting different frames, with colors added via light exposure.