Artists Space

Replica of a Lost Original
Leslie Hewitt

January 18 – March 10, 2007

With a contribution by Rose Olu Ronke Ojo
Curated by Christian Rattemeyer

"Snapshots, ephemera, oral stories pasted down, official and unofficial biographies left on bookshelves, found letters and mementos of sorts, suspended in time for constant reconsideration of moments pregnant with political and social agency," are the raw material for Leslie Hewitt's photographs and installations, in which she is stripping away the density of mediated culture, sifting through misrepresentations of genuine ideals. Hewitt quite literally builds on the idea of protest, of flux, of change, of revolution and creates structures which capture temporary manifestations of subjectivity, and which may last an instant or a long time.

A sideways image of a photograph sitting on top of an open book. The photographs shows four people sitting next to each other. The book page is split with a column of text and a black and white image of a billboard that reads, "Growing with Birmingham!"
[A sideways image of a photograph sitting on top of an open book. The photographs shows four people sitting next to each other. The book page is split with a column of text and a black and white image of a billboard that reads, "Growing with Birmingham!"]

Opening Reception
Thursday, January 18, 6 - 8 pm

For Replica of a Lost Original, her first solo exhibition in New York, Hewitt brings together one work from her previous photographic series Make in Plain, as well as several new works produced specifically for this exhibition, including a collaboration with the young writer and scholar Rose Olu Ronke Ojo.

A gray television sits on a rectangular wooden board. There is a mass of wires next to it. In the background, a white paper with black text hangs on a white wall.
Replica of a Lost Original. Installation view, Artists Space, 2007. Photo: Bill Orcutt. [A gray television sits on a rectangular wooden board. There is a mass of wires next to it. In the background, a white paper with black text hangs on a white wall.]
A gray television sits on a rectangular wooden board. There is a mass of wires extending from the back of it snaking towards a pile of nearby photographs. On one white wall opposite, there are two identical images. Leaning on the other white wall is a framed photograph of two books, a wooden rectangle, and a photograph stacked vertically on each other. There is a second photograph offset to the right.
Replica of a Lost Original. Installation view, Artists Space, 2007. Photo: Bill Orcutt. [A gray television sits on a rectangular wooden board. There is a mass of wires extending from the back of it snaking towards a pile of nearby photographs. On one white wall opposite, there are two identical images. Leaning on the other white wall is a framed photograph of two books, a wooden rectangle, and a photograph stacked vertically on each other. There is a second photograph offset to the right.]
A gray television sits on a rectangular wooden board. There is a mass of wires next to it that snakes towards a pile of nearby photographs.
Replica of a Lost Original. Installation view, Artists Space, 2007. Photo: Bill Orcutt. [A gray television sits on a rectangular wooden board. There is a mass of wires next to it that snakes towards a pile of nearby photographs.]

Salmon, Lori. "Leslie Hewitt." artUS. May/June 2007. Issue 18. Print.

Scott, Andrea K. "Leslie Hewitt." The New York Times. February 23, 2007. Print.

    A large, framed photograph of two books, a wooden rectangle, and a photograph stacked vertically on each other. There is a second photograph offset to the right in the image.
    Leslie Hewitt, Make it Plain, 2006. C-print. [A large, framed photograph of two books, a wooden rectangle, and a photograph stacked vertically on each other. There is a second photograph offset to the right in the image.]