Jeanette May: CURIOUS DEVICES

Opening Reception: Friday, February 7, 2025, 5-8pm

Jeanette May’s still lifes reveal our complicated relationship with obsolete technology by juxtaposing the seductive designs and the inner workings of Curious Devices. Her photographs display a reverence for finely crafted merchandise, industrial design, and scientific wonders. The technological tableaus span antique stereoscopes and art deco clocks to Bluetooth headphones. Each object’s style, color, and construction epitomize a period of both aesthetic and technological advancement. May opens some devices to expose the archaic gears of movie projectors and the enigmatic architecture of circuit boards. What becomes of the beloved tech that stops working or can’t be updated?  

Curious Devices continues the exploration of beautifully designed vintage technology begun in May’s Tech Vanitas series. Surrounded by rich silks and damask wall covering, arrangements of domestic wares once again suggest 17th century Dutch still life paintings with their air of craft guilds, international trade, and personal wealth. Adding screw drivers and other tools to the assembled relics illuminates our desire to revive the damaged or deceased, as well as a culture of designed obsolescence and its environmental impact. May’s still lifes also reference the contemporary vanitas of advertising imagery. In an era overflowing with products, the temptation of worldly goods takes on new meaning. Curious Devices examines the present and the past of technology without easy answers but rather, like the Dutch vanitas, with a sense of wonder and trepidation.

Opening Reception, Friday, Feb 7, 5:00-8:00pm

• Exhibition dates: January 23 - February 28, 2025

• Gallery hours: Thurs – Fri 2-6pm, Sat – Sun 12-4 pm

This program is partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council.