Deborah Bright

All That is Solid: Buffalo, 2001
Deborah Bright’s ongoing All That is Solid project investigates the American "industrial heritage" industry, ie., the strategies undertaken by post-industrial cities like Buffalo to transform themselves into tourist destinations. Bright’s impulse is not to disdain such efforts, but rather to consider both the image being packaged for tourists and the concerns of local memory, to "call attention to parts of the story being omitted or mythologized" in the transformation of place. Bright’s installation, which asks visitors to become tourists and active participants in the hometown landscape, incorporates her research on and observations of the Niagara Mohawk Building and surrounding neighborhoods in Buffalo, Lackawanna and Niagara Falls. Other cities represented in this project are Pittsburgh, PA; Atlanta, GA; Lowell and Lawrence: Syracuse, Rochester and Utica, NY.

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Deborah Bright’s All That is Solid is a CEPA Gallery commission, supported by the CEPA Art Works! residency program. Courtesy of the artist.