Thursday, June 23, 2022

Melissa Catanese: The Lottery
Light Work Gallery

Light Work Gallery
316 Waverly Ave., Syracuse University, Syracuse

In "The Lottery," Melissa Catanese turns her attention to the tense and confusing state of contemporary politics and culture. Her images bring together large groups of people, barren caverns, natural forces, physical exertion, and eruptions both crude and colorful. The accumulated manic puzzle shifts the viewer from crowded street to darkened cavern. Along the way, we see a geyser of oil, streaks of lightning, veins of molten rock, and cooling craters. Punctuating these natural phenomena are people in states of glee, pain, confusion, and anguish.

Catanese borrows the title from literature. In Shirley Jackson's famous short story, a village casually embarks on a yearly ritual of selecting an individual and then stoning them to death. Catanese's The Lottery teases out similar themes regarding ritual, culture, and the diffused accountability of a mob.