Artscene Artscene Spring 2019 | Page 14

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Southern Rites
by Gillian Laub
January 25–May 12, 2019
Pleasant T. Rowland Galleries
Gillian Laub has spent the last two decades investigating political conflicts, exploring family
relationships, and challenging assumptions about cultural identity. Laub, a UW–Madison alumna,
first photographed segregated proms in southern Georgia in 2002. She returned in 2009, and The
New York Times Magazine published Laub’s photo-essay, “A Prom Divided,” which documented
Georgia’s Montgomery County High School’s racially segregated prom rituals. In 2011, a tragedy
struck, which brought Laub back to the community again and she continues to remain connected
and engaged today.
Laub’s work frequently addresses the experiences of adolescents and young adults in transition who
struggle to understand their present moment and collective past. In Southern Rites, Laub engages
her skills as a photographer, filmmaker, storyteller, and visual activist to examine the realities of
racism and raise questions that are simultaneously painful and essential to understanding the
American consciousness. The exhibition is organized by the International Center of Photography
and ICP curator Maya Benton. Laub’s film of the same title, available on HBO, iTunes and other
outlets, documents the subsequent integration of the proms and the events that follow.
Southern Rites is organized by the International Center of Photography, New York. Presentation at
the Chazen Museum of Art is supported by a generous gift from the Brittingham Trust, and in part
by a grant from the Wisconsin Arts Board with funds from the State of Wisconsin and the National
Endowment for the Arts.
Gillian Laub (American b. 1975), Prom king and queen, dancing at the black prom,
Vidalia, Georgia, 2009, inkjet print, © Gillian Laub, courtesy of Benrubi Gallery