Book signing this Friday 5-8pm Patty Carroll’s: Anonymous Women

Join us this Friday @ Studios Inc from 5:00 – 8:00 PM to celebrate Patty Carroll’s newest book: Anonymous Women with essays by Professor Naren Barfield and Dr. Lauren DeLand.Meet and greet with refreshments from 5:00 - 5:30, brief artist talk at 5:30 with book signing following!!!  The book, Anonymous Women, will be available for purchase at the event and is available at Daylight Books & Amazon  .For over twenty years, Patty Carroll has staged photographs using models, drapery, and household objects to create humorous, provocative photographic tableaux that comment on the role of women in the home.Anonymous Women (Daylight Books, January 2017) presents visually stunning images of women in theatrical domestic scenes where their identity is lost in the trappings of domesticity. These not-so-still-lifes are colorful, beautiful, and mysterious, articulating the many complex relationships -- both personal and cultural -- existing between women and the home.Anonymous Women is a project in 3 parts. In the first series, Carroll photographs the head of a vulnerable, very white woman with domestic objects covering her head -- a cabbage, a cake, bacon strips, a picture frame, tea bags, and more. As the woman's eyes are obscured, the viewer can only see her through the filter of food or household objects.In the second series, a lone woman hides within her home, behind richly textured fabrics and drapes with an occasional prop. Camouflaged by the domestic interior, the mysterious draped woman has become immersed in it. The draped series highlights the blurred boundaries between the homemaker and her home.In her third series, Carroll moves beyond just drapery to define the woman, by using objects to comment on obsessive collecting, accumulating and decorating. The figure disappears into the claustrophobic surroundings. The pictures provide a variety of narratives about interests and identities of women; for instance, the woman who displays all her trophies, the collector of plates, the compulsive knitter and crocheter, and the woman stuck in the 1970's.Carroll's childhood in mid-century suburban Chicago informs all of her work. She grew up when suburban life was idealized; the home was a place of utter perfection, where every home had matching drapes and sofa, where families had 2.5 children and manicured lawns. It was a time when the "woman's place was in the home." Carroll's photography both idealizes and critiques the conventions of domesticity.Patty Carroll hopes to reach women of any culture, age, country or social standing with the Anonymous Women project. She says: "as photographers, we follow our own heart, and talk about our personal experiences, but if those messages can mean something to a larger group, then we have done our job."The book includes essays by author and artist Naren Barfield and Dr. Lauren DeLand, professor and scholar of contemporary and modern art. Interspersed throughout the book are whimsical texts commenting on the photographs by curators Kate Ware, Lynne Warren, Davis Travis and Xu Jia.ABOUT THE PHOTOGRAPHER: Patty Carroll has her BFA from the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana in Graphic Design, and her Master of Science (MS) in Photography from the Institute of Design at IIT, Chicago. Since leaving graduate school in 1972, she has taught photography continuously at the University level, both full and part-time. Carroll has participated in numerous group and one-person exhibitions. Selected one-person exhibits include "Are You Lonesome Tonight" at Royal Photographic Society in Bath, England in 1996, "Elvis?" at the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago in 1999, and "Dark and Deadly: Photographs and Digital Movie Posters" at The Art Institute of Chicago in 2004. Since 2010, her "Anonymous Women: Draped" series was shown at White Box Museum in Beijing, (2011), at Shanghai University Gallery (2010), several University galleries and museums, and at the Cultural Center in Chicago in 2012. In 2015, the series was exhibited at Zhejiang Art Museum in Hangzhou, China (2015), The Photographers Association in Ningbo, China (2015), and Daura Gallery, in Lynchburg, Virginia (2014), among others. She was the recipient of an Artist Fellowship Grant from the Illinois Arts Council in 2003, and has had various International artist residencies. She was one of the "Top 50" of Photolucida in 2014. She is represented by Martha Schneider Gallery in Chicago, and Sherry Leedy Gallery in Kansas City. She is the photographic author of four books, including Living the Life: The World Elvis Tribute Artists, 2005 and Man Bites Dog: Hot Dog Culture in America, with Bruce Kraig, 2012.BOOK DETAILS:Hardcover,  ISBN-13: 9781942084198,  96 pages, 10.20 x 10.20 inches, $45.00 USABOUT THE PUBLISHER: Daylight is a non-profit organization dedicated to publishing art and photography books. By exploring the documentary mode along with the more conceptual concerns of fine art, Daylight's uniquely collectible publications work to revitalize the relationship between art, photography, and the world-at-large. For more information, visit www.daylightbooks.org.