Away From Home

Catherine Siegel's photographs show the uncertainty-plagued life of refugees. She maps the geography of those uprooted by violence in The Displaced Person, a photographic thesis that blossomed out of her work with asylum seekers in Hong Kong earlier this year. Siegel hopes to bring awareness to this neglected population by documenting their new lives in culturally, socially and politically unfamiliar territories. In "At Church," a joyless congregation sits in a row of folding chairs and receives a sermon in a linoleum-tiled room obviously never intended to be a house of prayer. In another, "The Coffee Grower's Daughters," the hazy silhouettes of two young girls push against a brilliant blue veil, as though waiting to be born into whatever life their displacement dictates. The show opens tonight during a reception from 6 to 9 at Unit 5 Gallery, (1920 Wyandotte, 816-863-8883).
Fri., Nov. 2, 6-9 p.m., 2007