Jonathan Hobin's Little Lady/Little Man is showing at Ottawa's City Hall Art Gallery from March 16 to April 29, 2012.
Mike Cullen (Twitter) is a young public servant who is also a regular contributor to (Cult)ure Magazine as a music editorialist. His passions include music, coffee, writing, travel and comic books.
Local photographer and artist, Jonathan Hobin, opened a new exhibit at Ottawa City Hall last week called “Little Lady/Little Man.” The premise behind the exhibit is to reflect on the deaths of a husband and wife through photography, both vintage and modern, as well as deathbed portraiture and the use of a family heirloom of sorts; two lullabies recorded by Hobin’s own grandfather shortly before his death, entitled “Little Lady Make Believe” and “Little Man You’ve Had a Busy Day.”
This exhibit is a personal one for Hobin, as it’s his grandparents on display from their youth (as photographed by the famous Yousuf Karsh), and Hobin’s own photography; in this case UV ink on aluminum creating a striking, yet haunting image of the subjects.
As Hobin explains in the brochure accompanied with the exhibit,
“Over time, these songs served for me as a beautiful, albeit tragic, metaphor for the fleeting nature of physical power and youthful beauty, conventions that society closely relates to concepts of masculinity and femininity.”
Little Lady/Little Man is both a powerful and vulnerable look at aging, legacy and remembrance. The exhibit is only at City Hall until April 29th, 2012, so I highly encourage you to drop by City Hall Art Gallery (main level concourse) before then. Jonathan Hobin will also be providing an English-language talk on Sunday, April 2nd at 2 p.m. on the exhibit, which will likely provide insights into the influence and affect of this project, and how it came to be.
Thanks for sharing, Mike. I’m really looking forward to this exhibit.
One point of clarfication; Hobin’s grandfather did not write the lullabies used in the exhibit, though that’s how I interpreted reading it from the text of the brochure. However, it is the voice of his grandfather reciting the lullabies that you’ll hear (if it’s quiet enough in the gallery), when you visit.
I’ll correct in the blog!
Thanks for writing about this, Mike! I read about the exhibit somewhere else and have wanted to go check it out. I think I’ll head down there later this week.
It’s a great exhibit, for sure! I’m hoping to get back down to City Hall on April 1st to hear Jonathan’s talk on the collection.