Relentless Melt

All photographs are memento Mori. To take a photograph is to participate in another person’s (or thing’s) mortality, vulnerability, mutability. Precisely by slicing out this moment and freezing it, all photographs testify to time’s relentless melt.

- Susan Sontag

LAUNCH F18 is delighted to present a new group exhibition focusing on a selection of contemporary artists working in photography today. Relentless Melt opens on Saturday, March 5, 2022 and remains on view through March 26, 2022. This exhibition will also be accompanied by a special online viewing room.  Relentless Melt includes works by Aneta Bartos, Sasha Phyars-Burgess, Barbara Ess, Tommy Kha, Yamamoto Masao, Armando Nin, Sarah Palmer, Ben Renert, Frankie Rice, Hannah La Follette Ryan, Gus Van Sant , Akilah Townsend and John Waters.

Since its invention in the 1800’s, to the common accessibility in the 1900’s, followed by its undeniable explosion in the early 2000’s, photography is truly unlike any other form of art. It has the unique ability to straddle the line between documentation and what one might consider traditional higher art, and functions with a multitude of purposes. Today we live in a world where our very lives are constructed around the documentation of almost every moment, and shared immediately, with at times profound impact.  

Today, there is a saturation of images like we’ve never experienced before in history, and yet the excitement and intrigue still exists within the medium today. Relentless Melt seeks to reflect and offer a visual catalog as well as a celebration of artists who continue to explore the frozen image. By including portraiture, collage, landscape, and street photography this canon of works illustrates the importance of creating a physical space to highlight the art of seeing in an intimate setting. By closely examining these ideas, with deep inspiration from Frederick Douglass to Susan Songtag, Relentless Melt captures a contemporary presentation of the way the medium has evolved over multiple generations.

Throughout history photography has been a means to capture accurate representation, but furthermore nurture humankind’s natural attraction to what Fredrick Douglas referred to as “picture-appreciating.”  Throughout the works contributed from these eleven exhibiting artists, Relentless Melt shares a window into the current conversation of contemporary photography.   With this assortment of photographs, we pause briefly to hold a small mirror up and look broadly at this remarkable, and increasingly powerful medium. 

For more information, or a preview of this exhibition please email us at: info@launchf18.com