to skip, to gloss is a site-specific installation that utilizes photography, sculpture, and architectural elements to explore how our perception is translated into understanding.

In this new body of work, Bursese presents a series of binary relationships that are represented as photographs and related sculptural elements. Through lighting and a temporary wall, the gallery is bisected into a dark and light half. In the light half a long line of color photographs depicts a wall in various states of construction and demolition.  A two-way mirror in the dividing wall offers a reflection toward the light half, and a view of the light from the dark half, which contains a sculpture in dialog with the photographs. Vantage points within the exhibition suggest to the viewer such larger issues as surveillance, access, and borders. The architectural elements highlight the role of the body in space and our instinct to trust what we experience first hand.

Built into the framework of to skip, to gloss is Bursese’s ongoing investigation into behavioral patterns that create expectations, habits, and vulnerability. The body, although not pictured, tears down and builds the photographed wall and touches the found objects on display. The formal arrangement of objects, images and materials suggest metaphors that explore the bond between aggression and delicacy, trust and doubt, knowing and “skipping over”.

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Stephanie Bursese (b.1980) makes work that investigates photography’s role in limiting perspective; by using site-specific installations, book forms, and printed images she creates loops of meaning that create both spatial and psychological spaces. Her work has been shown in numerous galleries, museums, and publications nationally and internationally; she is represented in both private and public collections. She was selected for a residency at the Fabric Workshop and Museum in 2006 and was awarded a project grant from the Meadowlands Commission in New Jersey in 2009. In 2013 she self-published her first book of photographs Razor Thin Rock Hard and released her second book, Belt and Brace in 2015. She was recently nominated for the 2017 MACK First Book Award. She is the Program Manager for the Philadelphia Area Creative Collaboratives grant funded by the Mellon Foundation at Haverford College. Bursese earned a B.F.A from the University of Florida and her M.F.A. from Syracuse University. This is Bursese’s second solo exhibition at Vox Populi Gallery in Philadelphia where she lives and works.