Zoe Leonard: Al río / To the River
Zoe Leonard, a highly acclaimed American artist, presents her first exhibition in Australia titled Al río / To the River. This large-scale photographic project documents the Río Bravo/Rio Grande, a natural and political border between Mexico and the United States. Since 2016, Leonard has meticulously captured a 2000km stretch of the river, tracing its path through Ciudad Juárez in Mexico, El Paso in Texas and onwards to the Gulf of Mexico. Through hundreds of images, Leonard’s project offers a nuanced portrayal of the river, exploring its significance in agriculture, commerce and culture, as well as its role in policing and surveillance. Al río / To the River unfolds as a series of images mirroring the river’s fluidity, employing various photographic styles to capture evolving events and transformations. Zoe Leonard, born in 1961, is a critically acclaimed artist and Guggenheim Fellow whose investigations into the politics of representation and display address themes of displacement, migration, gender, sexuality, loss and the relationship between nature and urban environments. Al río / To the River continues at MCA until November 5, 2023.
