September 21 – December 30, 2021
The commodification of the commonplace continues to be a running theme of the COVID-19 pandemic, creating early-on, absurd rolling shortages: flour, hair dye, and of course, toilet paper. This was the genesis of the ongoing work by the Rolls & Tubes Collective, comprised of four women photographers from California; Christy McDonald, Colleen Mullins, Jenny Sampson, and Nicole White. In Rolls & Tubes, the four artists reinterpret known photographs in the arc of contemporary, and the history of photography, utilizing toilet paper as an element of the image. Each artist comes from a different photographic modality and they initially joined together to form a critique group, but transformed into an art-making collective in the face of the first COVID-19 lockdown.
Recent exhibitions include: PARC, Format Festival, London College of Communication, London, UK (2021), ICP Concerned, International Center of Photography, New York, NY (2020), and Bay Area Current(ly), Photo Alliance, San Francisco, CA (2020). Their forthcoming publication, Rolls & Tubes: A History of Photography is due out Summer 2021.
