Nomi Kaplan
Brooklyn Illuminations
May 5–29, 1988

Fascinated by the immediacy of graffiti writing as a form of communication, Nomi Kaplan began photographing graffiti during her visits to the Lower Park Slopes area of Brooklyn, NY, from 1984-87. Returning to her home in Vancouver, she was struck by connections between these photographs and her interest in Renaissance art, pre-Christian and early Christian art and iconography. Kaplan’s works are not “message” pieces; instead, they are pieces that “hold messages”. The reading depends on the viewer. The “messages” are about heaven, limbo and hell. They are about capitalism, consumerism, “the streets”, and the declining North American way of life. They are about exchanges, where time and place are shuffled, reshuffled, and dropped into new contexts… Brooklyn Illuminations is intended to be gazed upon, scanned, decoded, interrupted and understood or questioned according to the viewer’s own imagination, experiences and needs.