- RESIDENCY DATES : May 1st 2006 to Jul 31st 2006
- PRACTICE : Visual Artist
- FROM : USA
Carl Pope’s (b. 1961 in Indianapolis, Indiana) strongest influence in his artistic practice continues to be his high school photography teacher, Donna Hostettler, who endorsed the notion that art is an effective tool for positive social change. Her primary example was photography’s role in changing public support of the Vietnam War. She said, “It was not the protests that changed America’s understanding for the Vietnam War but the daily exhibition of horrific images in the media that swayed popular opinion about it.” Pope continued his work in this direction through his undergraduate years at Southern Illinois University. After graduating in 1984, Pope returned to Indianapolis to work as a freelance photographer in advertising and commercial photography while exhibiting his personal projects. His photographic and multi media investigations of the socio-economic landscape of Indianapolis earned critical acclaim at prestigious venues like the Museum of Modern Art and the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago. The installation “The Black Community: An Ailing Body” received support from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts in 1993. Pope expanded his public art practice with projects in Hartford, Ct, Atlanta and New York for “Black Male” at the Whitney Museum of American Art. In 1996, Pope enrolled in the MFA program at Indiana University and widened his conceptual concerns to include an investigation of the Self. The initial excursions into his own interior landscape produced “Palimpsest”, a video/writing project with twin sister Karen Pope. “Palimpsest”, commissioned by the Wadsworth Anthnaeum with grants from the Warhol and Lannan foundations, was included in the Whitney Biennial 2000 exhibition. Pope’s most recent installation of letterpress posters called “The Bad Air Smelled of Roses” continues his ongoing exploration into inner space. “I am navigating my interiority in order to enrich my life and to find stimulating ways to create epiphany and revelation within the imagination of my audience.” Pope recently received a Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation 2005 Biennial Award for the installation “The Bad Air…”.
Pope has taught at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and was Assistant Professor at the State University of New York at Stony Brook and the University of Illinois at Chicago.