Houk Gallery presents new work by contemporary photographers Elinor Carucci (Israeli-American, b. 1971) and Jessica Wynne (American, b. 1972). Both artists delve into intense studies of objects as symbols in their latest series, "Collars of Ruth Bader Ginsbug" and "Do Not Erase."   

Elinor Carucci’s “The Collars of Ruth Bader Ginsburg,” documents the collection of collars that became a celebrated and distinguishing feature of the late Supreme Court Justice over the course of her remarkable career. In late 2020, Carucci was commissioned by TIME magazine to photograph a selection of Ginsburg’s most cherished collars. She was granted special access at the Supreme Court, and her images appeared in an article with text by Tessa Berenson, featuring details about each collar provided by the Ginsburg family. Berenson writes, "Ruth Bader Ginsburg was an American icon. The late Justice, who died on September 18, 2020 at the age of 87, was only the second woman to sit on the U.S. Supreme Court, and a trailblazing feminist who enshrined equal protections for women into the law. Over her 27 years on the nation’s highest court, Ginsburg also became a fashion pioneer, bringing her unique style to the staid judges’ robes and subtly encoding meaning in her dress through an ever-growing collection of collars often given to her by colleagues and admirers."    

In Carucci’s words, "The achievements of Ruth Bader Ginsburg broke down so many barriers. Her life held special significance for Jewish women like me who dreamed of living a life that combined career success with tikkun olam, the Hebrew word for repairing the world. In many ways, this project is different from my most well-known work, which draws inspiration from my personal and family life. Yet, I still see these photographs as being just as personal as any of my other work. Ginsburg was a symbol of justice and pride, my superhero. She represented my identity, values, and connection to America. She represents the values I hope to one day hand over to my daughter, [who is, like Ginsburg,] an American Jew, the child of an immigrant."   

Jessica Wynne’s “Do Not Erase” captures the chalkboards of mathematicians all over the world, highlighting the visual poetry and formal qualities of the complex formulas scribbled and erased on them. Mathematicians "see images first, not words. They see pictures before meaning," Wynne observes. This relationship between image and thought is one of the primary areas of investigation for her work.   

“[Chalkboards] symbolize so much for me: the interplay of aesthetic beauty and practical use; the foreign and the familiar; understanding and mystery. Despite technological advances, chalk on a board is still how most mathematicians choose to work. As musicians fall in love with their instruments, mathematicians fall in love with their boards’ tile shape, the texture, the quality of the special Japanese Hagoromo chalk. The boards are their homes, their labs, their private thinking spaces. When mathematicians start writing on an empty board, they often have no idea where their calculations will go. The board leads them there, like a blank page for a writer, or an empty frame for a photographer. Working on a chalkboard is a physical, time-based act. Your brain lights up. Thoughts are exploding—erupting—at the moment of discovery.” – Jessica Wynne, Do Not Erase, Princeton University Press