Homeward Bound: Exhibition & Readings

Homeward Bound: One-Night Exhibition & Readings

Featuring Work by Students From Durham School of the Arts

To be homeward bound is an act of returning. It is not limited to physical acts, such as driving home for the holidays, but can be a journey of emotional and spiritual return, reconnection, and recognition. The student works depicted in this one-night exhibition and readings explore self, home, and community through each artist’s own experience and creative practice, connecting to a sense of place and time and one’s own homeward movement.

About the Pop Up

As part of the programming around Southbound: Photographs of and about the New South, students from several classes at Durham School of the Arts had the opportunity to tour and engage deeply with the exhibit. Students from Jack Watson’s class created visual works, while students from Caitlin Donovan’s class created written works. Selected works from both will be presented Wednesday night. Finally, students in class with teacher Amber Santibañez were visited by Southbound photographer Titus Brooks Heagins for a series of workshops exploring outward expressions of an inner state, and how one’s “visual truths” provide glimpses into who they are and who they want to be.

About the Exhibition

Southbound: Photographs of and about the New South is presented by the Power Plant Gallery in collaboration with Duke’s Forum for Scholars and Publics and the Gregg Museum of Art & Design at North Carolina State University. In this iteration, guest curator Randall Kenan, author and NC native, organizes the many framed photographs of the exhibition around the twin themes of Flux, on display at the Power Plant Gallery, and Home, on display at the Gregg Museum. The full program of events includes slow tours, film screenings, “Sit + Chat” sessions, and FSP@PPG panel discussions that engage with the issues in and around the works of art and explore the topics, places, and styles of Southbound. Southbound: Photographs of and about the New South was organized by the Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art at the College of Charleston School of the Arts in Charleston, South Carolina, and curated by Mark Long and Mark Sloan. Visit the exhibit online at southboundproject.org.

Related Coverage

“The ideas and problems which have dogged the South from the beginning are still afoot: race and the legacy of slavery; the bloody blunder that was secession and the Civil War; a powerful fondness for Jesus and the Protestant religion; a particular food culture tied directly to the agricultural bounty that sprang from that very landscape.” —Randall Kenan, quoted in Southbound: Photographs of and about the New South, Forum Online

“Before you start, know what you’re trying to achieve with the photo. Have a goal in mind, and think through what you need to do to get there.” —Titus Brooks Heagins, quoted in Titus Brooks Heagins Visits DSA, Forum Online

“McNair Evans produces choreographed works. He orchestrates photos after establishing relationships with his subjects, giving him the ability to capture images of vulnerable moments.” —Cydney Livingston, Photography as Choreography: Confessions for a Son, Forum Online