November 04, 2020 Rik Sferra Meet the artists of the 2020 MCAD Faculty Biennial The use of text and symbols in my work comes from the fact that an individual photograph has limitations as a narrative or descriptive medium. For instance, a photograph can only hint at additional sensory experiences such as smell or sound, while text can be more specific. I work in a panoramic format in order to reinforce the activity of reading a sentence. This format also approximates the human field of vision. In the Venetian Language Lesson images, text is used to specifically dictate how the viewer should construe the activities and gestures of the various people in the scene. Once “labels” have been assigned to the activities, the viewer has been denied the ability to interpret the image for themselves. Simultaneously, the viewer is made to understand the specificity of language. If “perseverare: to persevere” had been ascribed to the man in the wheelchair, it indicates that he is responsible for his survival though his perseverance. But by using the word “sopravvivere”, his survival may or may not be through perseverance. In this way I control the narrative more than by merely composing the image and tripping the shutter. About Rik Sferra Rik Sferra's photography and video work has been exhibited at the Minnesota Museum of American Art, the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, the Soap Factory, the Detroit Institute of Arts, the Cincinnati Art Museum, and the School of Visual Arts, New York. He has received grants and fellowships from the McKnight Foundation, Film in the Cities, the Minnesota State Arts Board, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Sferra's freelance photography clients have included Rolling Stone, the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games, Design Quarterly, the Aveda Corporation, AGA Medical, Catholic Charities, Medtronic, The McKnight Foundation, Rollerblade and 3M. In addition to his teaching career and artistic endeavors, he plays drums and percussion for the jazz/rock band, The Basic Food Group. Explore more about Rik Sferra