Fabrics of Socialism
October 18 – November 23, 2013
new works by Vesna Pavlovic
opening Reception: Friday, October 18 | 7-10pm

Fabrics of Socialism takes an archive of photographic images as a way to discuss the photographic representation of history and collective memory of post WWII Yugoslavia. The archive is the visual record of Yugoslav president Josip Broz Tito’s career and his travels around former Yugoslavia and the world. The archive’s motivation was to keep a personal record of the former President’s activities. The tension between this private intention, and the public displays represented is central to the character of the archive’s photographic and historical representation. This tension holds some relationship to my prior work, which addresses the experience of history through the lens of photographic representation. The hysteria of collectivism and communist party iconography come across as distant and exotic, evoking a bygone socialist utopia and everydayness of monumental history.