True Though Invented

January 10–February 9, 2020

A.I.R Gallery, Brooklyn

In True Though Invented Maxine Henryson introduces a new body of work that intermixes leporellos of varying lengths with large and medium-sized photographs to create a rhythm of content, color, and scale—through depth of field, movement, and intentional soft focus—Henryson deconstructs image in favor of trace, memory, and unconscious remnants of place.

The exhibition title True Though Invented reflects one of the central theses of Henryson’s practice, which works to disrupt a direct reading, opening instead to multiple possible interpretations. Through the narrative installation of her photographs, Henryson creates nonlinear visual poems about place, geographic space, and the search for cultural interconnectivity. As Italian photographer Luigi Ghirri states, “It seems almost as though the gaze were divided into two incompatible and irreconcilable categories: perception on the one hand, and poetry on the other.” Henryson seeks to find a balance between these two extremes through images that describe life’s oscillation between known and unknown.

Landscapes, interiors, street scenes, still life, architecture, and nature are juxtaposed to create filmic dreams with unlocalized, atmospheric sequences. Henryson’s photographic process is open-ended and discursive—immediate, intuitive, and serendipitous—as she explores the world with few preconceptions. The rational is temporarily suspended and the unconscious takes over when she instinctively clicks the shutter, narratives emerging through sequencing and editing. In True Though Invented Henryson’s poetic, often fragmented, imagery lyrically synthesizes abstract with documentary, real with imagined, and everyday with extraordinary.

Download the exhibition booklet here

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