The Institute of Contemporary Art Chattanooga, as participating in the inaugural 2023 TN Triennial under the theme RE-PAIR, presents the complete opus of Stacy Kranitz’s body of work As it was Give(n) to Me (2009-2022) an expanded artist-based archive of photographs, collected images, text, and sculptural objects that traces exploration and extraction in central Appalachia over the past decade. These documents reflect on our relationship to representations of reality and the inherent flaws and ruptures in constructed notions of truth.

Working within the documentary tradition, Kranitz makes photographs that acknowledge the limits of photographic representation. Her images do not tell the “truth” but are honest about their inherent shortcomings, and thus reclaim these failures (exoticism, ambiguity, fetishization) as sympathetic equivalents in order to more forcefully convey the complexity and instability of the lives, places, and moments they depict. Poised between notions of what is right and what is wrong, she uses photography to open up narratives that confront our understanding of culture, especially focused in the Appalachian region of the American southeast.

Kranitz’s exhibition will feature images from all four sections of her artist archive, as well as a special artist study room that highlights research materials and sculptures that accompany the series. The study room will be a key conduit to connect to the academic course that accompanies the exhibition and conversations around RE-PAIR.

The exhibition will be accompanied by several public programs (free and open) between Jan-May 2023 that are being organized and finalized:

Opening Artist Lecture, Stacy Kranitz

Stacy Kranitz in conversation with documentary filmmaker Elaine McMillion Sheldon (University of TN, Knoxville)

Lecture or reading with author Mesha Maren (Duke University)

Panel discussion with group of photographers in the region to look at the need for many different representations of Appalachia: potentially Rob Amberg, Black in Appalachia, Rachel Bolliot, Zac Wilson, Raymond Thompson Jr.