16th Lyon Biennale Of Contemporary Art Exhibition, 2022

Prepared at length and meticulously crafted, the photographs of Buck Ellison explore issues involving social class and racial inequality, through artful staging. On a wallpaper from Schumacher (one of the oldest American wallpaper makers still extant), entitled Ming Vase, with its porcelain, ribbons and peonies, the artist places two photographic still lifes. His works trace the history of Lyon’s botanical gardens, which were planted to inspire silk designers.

Untitled (Spring) depicts five vases of peonies, clothing care items, a blue card, a dog leash, a schoolgirl’s skirt and prints from Allan Ramsay Thomas’ work, 2nd Baron Mansel of Margam with his Blackwood Half-Brothers and Sister (1742), which depicts the descendants of a noted British admiral. Untitled (Winter) includes a black ribbon, two travel alarm clocks, hotel stationery, a pair of porcelain ducks and prints from John Singleton Copley’s painting, A Boy with a Flying Squirrel (1765).