p o r t a l

The SE Center for Photography welcomes photographic artist Lori Vrba and presents her newest and developing project, portal,  with an opening reception Friday June 3, 6-8 PM. Lori will also be signing copies of her book, Moth Wing Diaries that evening. portal will run through August at the Center.

portal is a work in progress. Borrowing the words of Thomas Wolfe from Look Homeward Angel as her statement of inspiration "...a stone, a leaf, an unfound door; of a stone, a leaf, a door. And of all the forgotten faces.  Naked and alone we came into exile. In her dark womb we did not know our mother's face; from the prison of her flesh have we come into the unspeakable and incommunicable prison of this earth.  Which of us has known his brother? Which of us has looked into his father's heart? Which of us has not remained forever prison-pent? Which of us is not forever a stranger and alone?  O waste of loss, in the hot mazes, lost, among bright stars on this most weary unbright cinder, lost! Remembering speechlessly we seek the great forgotten language, the lost lane-end into heaven, a stone, a leaf, an unfound door. Where? When?  O lost, and by the wind grieved, ghost, come back again."

Lori Vrba, now residing in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, is a self-taught artist committed to film and the traditional wet darkroom. Vrba considers the exhibition and installation as an extension of the aesthetic and narrative components of her imagery. She has shown her work internationally to great acclaim and her work is held in the permanent collections of the Lishui Museum of Photography, China and the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, as well as private collections throughout the world.