between / two skies / And a firm ground

BY Allegra Hangen

June 13th – August 7th, 2024

Reception: June 13th, 2024, 5-7 pm

“The pieces in this series reflect the spontaneity and serendipity that she experiences each time she
visits Folsom Point, and the acceptance of error in the creative process.”

This new exhibit, by photographer Allegra Hangen, is a series of photographs and the “expanded photograph” that make up the series, Land Meditation, Expanded (2021), focus on Folsom Point, a nature preserve in Council Bluffs, Iowa that has been a personal site of meditation, wonderment, release, and retreat for Hangen since 2019.

These photographs were taken on 35mm film; due to some mechanical malfunction that happened in the camera while advancing the film, the individual shots began to overlap each other at odd intervals. This error only happened to her photographs at Folsom Point–the rest of the roll of film was exposed normally. The resulting images formed a sequence of fragmented hills, trees, and dry grass into a linear collage of an impossible landscape.

Various sections of this sequence are presented as printed photographs hung on the wall. The “expanded photograph” presents the entire film strip, enlarged and printed on a long, winding translucent fabric hung in the middle of the room. This installation is accompanied with an ambient sound piece that creates a sonic portrait of Folsom Point: collaging together the low hum of the nearby processing plant machines, wind, crunching leaves, birds, breath—creating an expanded, fragmented experience of a body searching for clarity in this imaginary landscape.

Artist Bio:

Allegra Hangen (USA, 1992) is a multidisciplinary artist, independent curator, and cultural organizer who mainly works in experimental video, installations, photography, sculpture, sound, and archives. Hangen’s work often takes on social and cultural themes, focusing on social effects of images and architecture. Her practice combines processual feedback loops, glitches, erasure, and research to question and subvert images and text, or rather to create new intuitive imaginations. Hangen received her Master’s in Visual Arts in UNAM (Mexico City) and her BFA in Photography and Art History at Lesley University College of Art and Design (Cambridge, MA). Her work has been exhibited internationally in individual and group shows, as well as film festivals, including Salina Biennial 2022 (Salina, KS), Salón Silicón (Mexico City), Pandeo (Mexico City), Galería 54 (Mexico City), Centro Fotográfico Manuel Álvarez Bravo (Oaxaca), Boston Art Dealer’s  Association (Boston), among others. She is currently on the curatorial team at the experimental film festival, ULTRAcinema, she is co-founder and co-director of Fortuna, an independent art space and international residency program between Omaha, NE and Mexico City.

En Español:

Allegra Hangen (USA, 1992) es artista multidisciplinaria, curadora y gestora cultural que trabaja en video, instalaciones, fotografía, escultura, sonido y archivos. La obra de Hangen aborda ante todo temas sociales y culturales, a menudo enfocándose en los efectos sociales de las imágenes y la arquitectura. Su práctica combina feedback loops de varios procesos, archivos, glitches, lo borrado, e investigaciones para subvertir las imágenes y texto, o bien para crear nuevas imaginaciones intuitivas. Hangen obtuvo su maestría en artes visuales en la UNAM y su BFA en fotografía e historia del arte del Art Institute of Boston. Su obra se ha exhibido en exposiciones individuales, colectivas, y festivales de cine internacionalmente, en lugares como la Bienal de Salina 2022 (Salina, KS), Salón Silicón (Ciudad de México), Pandeo (Ciudad de México), Galería 54 (Ciudad de México), Centro Fotográfico Manuel Álvarez Bravo (Oaxaca) y Boston Art Dealer’s Association (Boston, MA), entre otros. Actualmente forma parte del equipo curatorial del festival de cine experimental, ULTRAcinema, y es codirectora de Fortuna, un espacio independiente de arte y programa de intercambio de residencias entre Omaha, NE y la Ciudad de México.

Related Scheduling and Events:

The reception is June 13^th,  from 5-7pm. Reception is free and open to the public.

We will post a video with the artist on our YouTube channel. Follow the Nebraska Arts Council on Facebook for updates: NAC Facebook Link