In-person Artist Talk and Book Signing: Colleen Mullins

NOTE DATE CHANGE: In-person Artist Talk and Book Signing Colleen Mullins Expositions are the timekeepers of progress September 26, 3:30pm CPA Gallery Free and open to the public The Lecture Colleen Mullins has been telling stories with her photographs and artist books for over 30 years. Her modes of working intermingle the book form and photography from the traditional codex to wildly sculptural objects. For Mullins, the form in which the work is ultimately expressed must involve the right way to tell a story. While teaching Humboldt County in the Spring of 2018 she became compelled by the developing story of the removal of a statue of William McKinley in Arcata, California. A local effort in Arcata had been mounted to dispatch a statue of president McKinley, and it subsequently became the first statue of a President removed from public view on February 28, 2019. The story of the year-long saga is as informative as it is entertaining. What drew Mullins in was that President McKinley was a lifelong abolitionist and fought on the side of the Union in the Civil War. But that turned out to be the carrot in a truly interesting deep dive into both the history of McKinley himself and his bronze effigy.  Sculpted by Armenian immigrant, Haig Patigian, who went on to lead the notorious Bohemian Club, the statue survived exceptional threats, such as near destruction at the hand of the 1906 Earthquake while in the foundry in San Francisco, but has spent more time as a mascot than a known entity in its 100+ years in Arcata. Interviews with area residents resulted in the knowledge that many knew nothing of who the statue depicted, let alone the record of that figure. This is a layered story, filled with para-fictions, and the eventual facts that even led to the improbable and historic return of native lands in neighboring Eureka, CA.  Employing historic imagery, news clippings, archival materials, social histories, and my photographs, I weave together an examination of the issue of monument removal, with the Patigian portrait of McKinley as the center of a conversation that went from the absurd to the miraculous, questioning what we think we know in the contemporary recasting of history, with a post-colonial eye on the past. About the Book The publication is a project of Oregon State University which has an innovative program in its art department where students run a press! They design, print and bind the books in a small traditional commercial bindery in the Art Department. Students focus on small-run photography-based art books with clever design and low prices. All proceeds funnel back into student beneficial activities such as a visiting artist program, student trips and jobs in the department itself. Mullins will also discuss this model as a new opportunity for photographers to publish without paying to do it. Bio Colleen Mullins is a photographer and book artist. She has garnered numerous grants and fellowships, including two McKnight Fellowships...