Essays by Alex Klein, Tina Kukielski and Mark Owens

Carnegie Museum of Art, 2015

Using photography as a language, Shannon Ebner (born 1971) examines the signs, symbols, letters, words and graphical icons we encounter in the world. Auto Body Collision documents Ebner's most recent ongoing project, a multipart series of photographs that began on a trip to Italy in 2014. Ebner has been collecting language taken from signs, seeking out repetitions of terms such as "Auto Body Collision" and "Automotive." In dissecting found language and coupling it with her own, Ebner establishes connections between the terms "auto," "body," "motive" and "collision." The themes of Ebner's new work include the circulatory and the network, performance and its relationship to the body, and collision, in terms both literal and conceptual.

Auto Body Collision, designed in collaboration with the artist, includes more than 150 never-before-published photographs.

Donated by Justine Kurland