Update:
This show has been postponed.
Sat 3/14 @ 2-4PM
People who know local photographer Shari Wilkins, founder of the Cleveland Print Room, knows that her work of the past several years has focused around the ravaged town of Cairo, Illinois, the ancestral home of her family. Her tiny, elegiac photos of the ruins have been on display several times, currently at HEDGE Gallery as a supplement to John W. Carlson’s show Blues. They explore the remains of what was once a thriving southern Illinois town on the confluence of two rivers, and how racial inequities and social policies fueled its decline over a period of decades, accelerating by the late 60s following race riots.
Now the FAVA Gallery in Oberlin is presenting Displaced: Cairo, An American City, in which Wilkins’ photos will share the space with work by Carlson, Kerry David, Ruddy Roye and Clarence Wilkins, including an oral history by lifelong Cairo resident. It opens with a reception and panel discussion Sat 3/14 @ 2-4pm and remains on view through 4/26.
favagallery/displaced-cairo-an-american-city
