Angela Carlsen: NO VACANCY: a disappearing history
When: July 1-Aug. 2 2009
Opening Thurs July 2, 6-9pm. Angela Carlsen appreciates abandoned structures. She's documented unoccupied, neglected houses. Now, she's turned her lens on public buildings, including Greenvale School, Shannon Park and the recently vacated *Chronicle-Herald* building. "It feels exciting and depressing at the same time," she says of the impact shooting at these sites has on her. "I definitely feel overwhelmed and don't know where to start, but I try to take in an entire room and then dissect it with my camera." Carlsen looks for "lines, depth and shape and I try to make a photograph that has symmetry but also says something about the place." Though absent of people, their presence in and around these buildings is implied. Though she continues to deliberate on her own position on heritage conversation, she applauds the refurbishment and reuse of Greenvale School, "a beautiful old brick school [where the] interior is being gutted and the facade kept intact." (SF)