How We Hold the Sun
Anna Rotty
at Fourteenfifteen and Alpaca

Opening reception: 3.8.24, 6-9pm
Closing reception: 4.5.24, 4-7pm

How We Hold the Sun explores the transformational and relational qualities of light and water. I’m fascinated by rivers as fluid beings with a complicated history - bodies representing power, agency, but also subject to attempts to control. I observe, and then reconstruct my photographs in the studio, or within the environment, that investigate the systems, both natural and built, that transfer energy and water from place to place. This series consists of intimate portraits of the Rio Grande in Albuquerque, often shown as layered moments within a single frame. Light and shadow come together to show the potential for connection between landscape and body. I
invite movement through space and physical engagement, helping us slow down, pay attention, and shift perception. I ask: How can we show land and water as fluid, reciprocal experiences, rather than as fixed representations?

Anna Rotty lives on Tiwa Pueblo land in Albuquerque where she is an MFA candidate and instructor of photography at the University of New Mexico. She received a BFA from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 2011. Anna investigates water, light and infrastructure, informing her understanding of orientation and place. Her work has been published by Southwest Contemporary, Humble Arts Foundation, and Lenscratch, where she earned 3rd place in the Student Portfolio Prize in 2023. Anna is part of Collective Constructs, a collaborative group of artists and art historians responding with public visual scholarship to works from the permanent collection at the UNM Art Museum.    www.annarotty.com