Rachel Hibbard

Rachel Hibbard

On the Home Front

February 5 - March 2, 2014

How do citizens living in the United States experience wars that are fought on foreign soil? For those who do not have loved ones serving in the armed forces, these conflicts and the resulting violence may seem far removed from our everyday experiences. In her photographic series On the Home Front, Rachel Hibbard brings images of far-away wars into the American home as a means of exploring this geographic and psychological distance between the frontline and daily life in the U.S. To create each image, Hibbardcarefully arranges cutouts taken from newspapers and magazines within the surroundings of her living space. She then photographs the resulting tableaux, giving these previously two-dimensional figures new life amid the patterns, light, and shadows of her home.

"This work stands between the spheres of war reenactment, photojournalism, and surrealist collage. Each image reconstitutes an individual's face, the direction of a gun, or a gaze, a new place. I am searching for a way to carry events into the present and dump them at the viewer's feet."

Rachel Hibbard is a multidisciplinary artist living and working in Portland, Oregon. She received an MFA in printmaking at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor after earning a BFA from the Pacific Northwest College of Art. Her work has been exhibited nationally in venues including The Chicago Cultural Center, the State of Illinois Gallery, the Betsy Rosenfield and Kline Galleries, the Detroit Building, Maryhill Museum, and the Portland Institute for Contemporary Art. She currently teaches in the School of Art and Design at Portland State University.