Scenes of Florida’s vibrant natural world cover the walls of the Gainesville Fine Arts Association’s main gallery. But hanging lonely in the middle of the gallery, a tarnished wedding dress sways.
The flowing white dress is the focal point of one of the many pictures around the room, which shows gallery artist Jessica Carter walking through the woods wearing it.
The 45-year-old Gainesville-based artist opened her solo exhibit “Florida/Woman” at GFAA on Wednesday after two years of preparation.
The project focused on Carter’s self-portraiture through photography and consisted of film photos printed on canvas.
“Florida/Woman” is about Carter’s personal experience and those of many other transgender people in Florida. The exhibit portrays the ache of a growing dilemma: The state she loves and calls home no longer feels safe, but she’s unwilling to leave because of that love.
Carter’s exhibit is one of four solo or artist-curated shows GFAA will display this year and is one of only two that will take place in the main gallery.
Mara McCormick, GFAA’s 42-year-old gallery manager, first encountered Carter’s work during one of the group shows the gallery regularly hosts. She’s always found Carter’s creative process exciting.
“It’s not just this one single photo,” McCormick said. “It's a huge amount of work going into planning that photo, planning the location, waiting for the exact right moment so that she can realize her vision.”
When entering the exhibit, the first photo on display — and the first photo Carter took for the exhibit — shows her standing in a bathtub with lit candles melting toward her feet, an image she said represented the optimism she felt toward her transition at the time.
Moving farther into the exhibit, the gallery loses the highly composed feeling of the first shot, instead focusing on Florida’s nature and Carter’s part in it.
“When I feel like, ‘Who am I? Why am I in Florida? Why do I do what I do with my life?’, it's because I feel close to the nature here, and that's why I want to stay,” Carter said.
Nature is everything in Carter’s work, and her process involves scouting locations and hiking to find the perfect spot for each shot. She often has to wait weeks or months for the foliage in an area to fit her vision.
Not all of the photos were taken in natural places, though. Her more industrial pieces offer a sharp juxtaposition to the natural scenes.
One piece near the end of the exhibit, titled “Authority,” shows Carter hunched over and surrounded by power lines while a second ghostly figure glows above her.
“[It’s] this light coming down and being in awe of it,” she said. “And that [is] causing you to cower in fear at the same time you want to jump out of your skin with — I'm not sure joy is the right word, but exuberance.”
Jackson Hill, a 36-year-old artist and friend of Carter, helps her find some of the natural locations.
“She will start with the end goal in mind, and then I just have trail maps,” Hill said. “I'm thinking about what the trail is going to be like, the beginning, the way to get there …It's always different to go hiking with Jessica.”
Throughout the exhibit, many of the pieces deal with themes of fear and exaltation coexisting, especially for a trans person living in Florida.
Even the exhibit's name uses this idea. “Florida/Woman” carries a double meaning, Carter said. On one hand, it mirrors how individuals write pronouns and shows that she, first and foremost, identifies as a Florida woman. However, the slash also represents a separation and the way her existence in Florida divides her and other trans people from their identities.
The show is set to remain in GFAA’s main gallery through Aug. 8 alongside “Drink n Draw: A Community Exhibition” in the smaller front gallery.
Contact Brandy Sumner at bsumner@alligator.org.
Brandy Sumner is an anthropology and English junior and this summer's music and performance reporter. This is their first semester working at the Alligator. In their free time they enjoy playing guitar, reading and writing.
