Exhibition

Public Notice

September 15, 2018 – January 20, 2019

Elaine Whittaker, I Caught it at The Movies (detail), 2013, Petri dishes, digital images, mylar, gouache, agar, Halobacterium sp. NRC-1

Fear and disease go hand in hand.

News media and technology often spread hysteria and fear around disease. As fear swells, it plays various roles in how a disease is perceived and understood. While inciting fear can may cause precautions, it also divides the healthy from the unhealthy, those who are willing to help from those who are not, and often fact from fiction.

The work in Public Notice deal with disease and illness and its impact historically and racially, look at loss and misunderstanding, and contrast scientific facts to fiction. While fear often trumps empathy and understanding, the works in this exhibition refuse to let fear have the last word.