BOB LAKE
New Media - "Old Glory"
August 30 to September 30, 2002
Reception: August 30, 2002 5 to 7 p.m.
Curator: Rebecca Murtaugh, Assistant Professor

Remembered, revered, feared, forgotten. Old Glory is a metaphor for perceptions of a cultural past that draws its power from ambiguity and subjectivity. Aptly titled, this exhibition of recent works by San Francisco based artist Bob Lake plays against what "things aren't, but maybe are". These works embody not only the artist's own inquiries into the nature of American perspectives of itself, but also how that which colors our heritage sheds a filtered light onto our perceptions of the present and future. In the wake of the tragedies of Sept. 11, these works consciously point a shaking finger at homogenized, whitewashed American history. Through the overlapping of fact and fiction, allegiance and antagonism, icon and villain, these works beg questions that address a hypocrisy that has been culturally shrugged-off, yet continues to color our perceptions. It flows through mass media via images of a cultural solidarity on a backdrop of red, white, and blue. Who colors our perceptions of truth and reality? Does their box of crayons have more than three colors? Stars and bars are only a slight variation. Bob Lake 's work carries the residues of his own history and life south of the Mason-Dixon line . Laden with sorrows, dreams, and romance, southern culture maintains a pervasive righteousness in the shadows of atrocity. How self-reflexive are we? How much of our past do we choose to remember as we write policy for our future?