A Small Taste of Freedom is an exhibition by the photographer Lindsay Morris which resulted from a collaboration between Morris and the Guild Hall Teen Arts Council (GHTAC) during the COVID-19 pandemic. Composed of portraits and audio interviews of GHTAC members living under New York State’s “stay at home” order, the exhibition captures the everyday happenings, coping mechanisms, and escape modes of area teens living through this historic moment.
Morris’ series is a true reflection of the challenge teenagers faced as their final months of school, graduation, prom, and other rites of passage slipped away. The project began as a portrait series of high school seniors in their cars, recording the expressions and body language of young people on the cusp of adulthood, with the automobile representing a quest for autonomy and freedom. As spring began and the reality of the pandemic set-in, the adventurous and hopeful narrative of these young people changed.
A simply stated question was posed to Guild Hall’s Teen Arts Council members: How is Covid-19 affecting you? Their answers regarding family hardships, concerns about academic success, fears regarding our global community, and free-floating anxiety are embedded in the visual and audio material exhibited, but even without accompanying interviews, the facial expressions in these portraits tell a story of loss and uncertainty.
The car no longer represents a getaway toward an exciting future, but rather a means to escape from stressful and even claustrophobic home lives. In some scenarios, if the weather cooperates, the vehicle takes teens to much-needed, albeit socially distanced, tailgate meet-ups. This new framing of the automobile (or other mode of transportation like bikes and skateboards) as an escape rather than a leap into the future, tells a different story.
Lindsay Morris: A Small Taste of Freedom is on view during regular museum hours, and is the first exhibition in the newly renovated Guild Hall Lounge. To experience the audio portion of this exhibit, patrons must bring their own mobile device with ability to scan a QR code, and a pair of headphones.
The teens pictured are members of the Guild Hall Teen Arts Council (TAC). All portraits are shot by Lindsay Morris with Kodak Portra film. All audio recorded and edited by the individual TAC Member with readily available devices.
Curators
Casey Dalene, Curatorial Assistant & Lewis B. Cullman Associate for Museum Education
Anthony Madonna, The Patti Kenner Fellow in Arts Education
TIMED TICKETS AND VISITOR INFORMATION
To ensure the health and safety of its visitors in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Guild Hall has instituted the following measures:
- Reservations to visit the Museum are recommended. You can reserve timed tickets online or by calling 631-324-0806 Saturday-Sunday, 12-5 p.m. Drop-ins are also welcome!
- Visitors are asked to be on time for their appointment. Visits are for a maximum of one hour and no more than 50 people will be allowed in the museum galleries at a time.
- Visitors should enter through the left most front door of the building and check in with the Receptionist at the box office. A one-way footpath proceeds throughout the museum.
- Masks are required in the building for all patrons over the age of 2.
- Social distancing of at least 6 feet is encouraged in the museum galleries and lobby.
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Lindsay Morris
Lindsay Morris resides on the East End of Long Island with her husband and two sons. She is a freelance photographer and photo editor of Edible Magazine. In her latest project she is getting acquainted with her immediate neighbors.
Lindsay’s work has been featured on BBC World News and published in New York Magazine, TIME, The New York Times Magazine, Scientific American, GEO, Marie Claire, Elle and Vanity Fair.
Recent exhibitions include ICP, #ICPConcerned Responses to the Covid-19 Pandemic, The Newport Art Museum, RI, The Parrish Art Museum, NY, the Hamburg Triennial, Germany, Fotofest, Houston, Photoville Brooklyn, Catherine Edelman Gallery, Chicago, solo exhibitions at Clamp Art, NY, Rayko Photo Center, San Francisco and the Center for Fine Art Photography, Fort Collins, CO.
Morris is a producer of the 2016 BBC commissioned documentary, My Transgender Summer Camp and has published her first monograph with Kehrer Verlag, You Are You, documenting a summer camp for gender-creative children and their families.
Lindsay began her studies at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and holds a BFA from the University of Michigan School of Art.
Sponsors
Education Programming supported by The Patti Kenner Arts Education Fellowship, Lucy and Steven Cookson, The Wunderkinder Foundation, the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, Kate W. Cassidy Foundation, Milton and Sally Avery Arts Foundation, and funding from the Lewis B. and Dorothy Cullman Endowment Fund, and The Melville Straus Family Endowment
This project and installation is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts and VJS Studio.
Museum Programming supported in part by the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, public funds provided by New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature, an anonymous donor, Crozier Fine Arts, and funding from The Michael Lynne Museum Endowment, The Melville Straus Family Endowment, and The Lorenzo and Mary Woodhouse Trust.
Free admission is generously funded by BNB Bank and Landscape Details.
