Unremarkable is an installation comprised of more than 350 large-format Polaroid photographs, taken over a 13-month period.  These very intimate self-portrait photographs document Ms. Adams daily experience of living with Hodgkin Lymphoma (also known as Hodgkin Disease), a form of cancer that grows in the lymph system.

Atlanta, GA ?  On Thursday, September 7, 2006, the exhibit unremarkable, created by Lexington, Kentucky based artist Ruth Adams, will open in downtown Atlanta?s Arts for All Gallery, the only visual arts venue in the Southeast dedicated to exhibiting the work of artists with disabilities and those of low income.  Ms. Adams? work will be on view in Arts for All Gallery through October 24, 2006, and is presented in conjunction with Atlanta Celebrates Photography, the annual city-wide photography event.

Artist Ruth Adams is explicit in titling the project unremarkable (all lower case), intentionally referencing the everyday, common, and unexceptional. She identifies her  ?need to create something that would document my day-to-day journey with Hodgkin Lymphoma. I had visited the bookstore after my diagnosis and found a fair amount of written information on cancer ? but nothing visual that documented survival and the day-to-day journey of living with the disease.?  The visual account of Adams? very personal transformation is anything but common or ordinary.  The artist utilizes the immediacy of the Polaroid prints to capture images of herself in particular moments - no frills, no color correction, no fixing the imperfections.  Each photo is dated and presented chronologically, providing viewers with a visible and visceral sense of the progressive effects of the chemotherapy, and the profound changes Adams endured.  She also notes, ?As a photographer I set out to document what I thought would be the decline of my health ? what I did not realize was that it would be a spiritual journey as well.? Guest Curator Erica Mohar (formerly of the Columbus Museum submitted the proposal that brought Ms. Adams? work to the attention of the Arts for All Gallery Committee, describing the installation as a project that ?chronicles an intimate journey comprised of solitary moments that together share a larger story about sickness, health and human perseverance.?

Arts for All Gallery is located in the historic Healey Building at 57 Forsyth Street, NW, in Downtown Atlanta.  The gallery will host an opening Meet the Artist reception on Thursday, September 7, from 5 ? 8 p.m.  A second public reception is scheduled for Thursday, October 5, also from 5 - 8 p.m.  Both receptions are part of the Turner First Thursday downtown artswalk, and both are free and open to the public; complimentary light refreshments are served.  Arts for All Gallery is open to the public Monday - Friday, 9 a.m. ? 5 p.m. and admission is always free.

Curatorial Statement
unremarkable
Photography by Ruth Adams

In December of 2002, photographer Ruth Adams turned the camera on herself as the subject of her own investigation. Two months prior, Adams was diagnosed with a type of cancer called Hodgkin?s Lymphoma. In the position to objectify and analyze her illness with photographs, the artist began to document her 13-month struggle with cancer and chemotherapy beginning on her first day of treatment. Unremarkable provides the context for an important public dialogue about illness and recovery - subjects often considered taboo and so deemed appropriate for discussion only behind closed doors.

Introduced by American physicist Edwin H. Land in 1947, Polaroid technology created a revolution in photography - and a new genre known as instant photography - that challenged traditional notions about art and its making. For Adams, Polaroid prints enabled her to keep up with the immediacy of her narrative by producing finished images in a matter of seconds, while giving her the freedom to work independently. UNREMARKABLE chronicles an intimate journey comprised of solitary moments that together share a larger story about sickness, health and human perseverance.

~    Erica Mohar
Guest Curator

?My desire to create unremarkable resulted in my need to create something that would document my day-to-day journey with Hodgkin lymphoma. I had visited the bookstore after my diagnosis and found a fair amount of written information on cancer that talked about the journey but nothing visual that documented survival and the day-to-day journey of living with the disease.?

?As a photographer I set out to document what I thought would be the decline of my health. I was arrogant about survival; what I did not realize was that it would be a spiritual journey as well.?

?I bring a book that student Ren?e Bair made for me to every show so people may react to the work. When I read the entries, I am always overwhelmed by how people are touched by the work. When I see their response it confirms that I am doing the right thing while reminding me how precious life is.?

?I have used Polaroid transfers and lifts in my work before. I love Polaroid film ~ I think it is a wonderful medium. Normally when you use Polaroid film, you pull the developed image from the negative.  For some reason I didn?t do that.  There is a positive and negative image that really worked metaphorically and also gives a sense that you are tearing into something private.?

?Just two years ago, I watched my cousin compete in a triathlon. I made a vow to myself that I would compete the following year. I connected with a group called Team in Training that assisted me in preparing for the triathlon. The group has raised [more than] $600 million for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and I am in the best shape that I have ever been in my life.  I would have never have done this if I hadn?t gotten sick.?

Press contact: Jaehn ("Jane") Clare
Director of Artistic Development
VSA arts of Georgia
57 Forsyth Street, N.W.
Suite R-1, The Healey Building
Atlanta, GA 30303-2226
404.221.1270 x 202
Jaehn.ClareVSAartsGA.org

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