(Un)Common Bond

This exhibition will feature the photography and audio/visual work of Monica Jane Frisell and Adam Scher from their time as Artists in Residence here at the Art and History Museums of Maitland. Plan your visit here>>

About the exhibition: Since 2021, photographer Monica Frisell and audio recorder/editor Adam Scher (self-described “collectors of faces and stories”) have been zigzagging across the country in The Ark, amassing an audiovisual archive which they call Portraits of US. The stories are garnered from people based in both rural and urban communities, each one a snapshot of one ordinary person but which when threaded together, produce a mosaic of community life and what binds us together, collectively, as Americans.

Just some of the topics that have been entrusted to and captured by Frisell and Scher for their now 250-and-counting portrait portfolio include: grappling with health problems or issues of sexual or cultural identity and body image; dealing with grief or the pressures of starting a business or becoming a parent; handling the impact of addiction, sobriety, faith or politics; what binds a person historically to a place; and just recalling important personal memories, such as a first kiss…

As Frisell explains, “Many folks seem to derive relief from the experience – particularly after the isolation of the Pandemic – the project provides a moment for people to feel seen and heard, albeit by two seeming strangers.”