Ahndraya Parlato: TIME TO KILL

Ahndraya Parlato: TIME TO KILL is an evocative interrogation of gendered aging unfolding through photographs, letters, and sculpture. In the exhibition, Parlato explores her fears and fantasies around aging. In this body of work, Parlato thinks about how women may become less culturally visible as they enter perimenopausal stages of life. As she simultaneously unveils the stories of her lived experience alongside those of possible future selves, she undertakes a search for identity and being.

The photographs include portraits of women at varying and unidentified ages, spaces that are both vast and claustrophobic, and still lifes of domestic objects that are precarious and fleeting. The work is theatrical and literary, with imagery and writing that bring consideration to an otherwise often obscured phase of life. In her project, Parlato’s longing to play through as many projected scenarios as possible highlights the absurdity and ambiguity of the aging process.

Parlato’s expansive approach to storytelling allows the story to remain untethered from a specific moment in time, while elements of her creative writing allows the characters to be both mundane and fantastical. By creating alternate worlds where viewers are placed within a space of suspended disbelief, Parlato’s exhibition confronts everyday power dynamics and the deeply entrenched standards of beauty and caretaking.

Curated by Jamie M. Allen, Department of Photography with Ahndraya Parlato.

All works by Ahndraya Parlato (American, b. 1979) and on loan from the artist.