Work by Dutch artist Corine Vermeulen on view at Susanne Hilberry Gallery

Sat, Jan 24 - Sat, Mar 7  2015

On view January 24 until March 7, Obscura Primavera by Corine Vermeulen on view at Susanne Hilberry Gallery.

About the exhibition

Obscura Primavera (Medellin, Colombia, 2009 – 2014) presents images of a people, place, and time in transition. The works explore issues of cultural identity in a rapidly developing third world country. As suggested by the title of the series, all are entangled within this “dark spring”—referring to the commodification and exploitation of the environment and natural resources of the region during this tumultuous period of change.

This series of photographs was created during multiple visits to the city and artist residencies at Casa Tres Patios from 2009 to 2012. The project culminated in 2014 with a self-published book produced in Medellin, utilizing the Detroit Mini Assembly Linecollaborative process. The Detroit Mini Assembly Line employs local labor and manufacturing tools to produce limited edition publications. Members of the Medellin community, including a group of art students, became part of the process and was invited to participate in book binding workshops and the onsite production of the publication.

View a video of the process:

About Corine Vermeulen

Corine Vermeulen is a Dutch artist who set up her studio practice in Detroit in 2006. Her projects include: Your Town Tomorrow (2007-2012) which documents Detroit’s shifting social and geographic ecologies, and Obscura Primavera (2009-2014) which explores present-day conditions in the city of Medellin, Colombia. Her photographs have been featured in The New York Times, Time Magazine, Volume, Kaleidoscope magazine, Abitare and De:Bug. She earned a Masters of Fine Arts degree in photography from the Cranbrook Academy of Art, Michigan, and was amongst the first group of artists to be awarded the Kresge Artist Fellowship in 2009. Corine’s first museum solo exhibition, Photographs from the Walk-In Portrait Studio (2009-2014), is currently on view at the Detroit Institute of Arts.