“Flyover Country” at the Xavier University Art Gallery, September 29-October 27, 2018
October 8th, 2018 | Published in *, September 2018
There is nothing ordinary about Erika NJ Allen’s photographs of downtown Cincinnati. Taken with a pinhole camera set at an exposure of nine days, the city looks as if it has been underwater for a millennium. We are not likely to take the pictures’ minimal suggestions of color for granted. It is unsettling how they look like they are both underexposed and overexposed, but they emanate mystery and magic. “Silent Serenade” interrupts the look with a huge bright yellow streak that races through the sky, perhaps soaring, perhaps plummeting. However it got onto the print, it adds pent up vitality, exploding into the atmosphere. Is something apocalyptic on its way? Is the city releasing something indescribable into its airspace?
