Theology of Wonder: Rodney, Mississippi
December 11-31, 2019
Opening: Saturday, Dec 14, 6-9pm

In “Theology of Wonder”, Ashleigh Coleman explores both the vulnerability of nature and evolution of time and place. In January of 2016, when the Mississippi River flooded its banks and crept miles inland to Rodney, Mississippi – a vacated town that was once three votes from being the state’s capital – Coleman was compelled to see the phenomenon herself. Carrying a Hasselblad 500 c/m and wearing borrowed waders, she cautiously crept into the floodwaters as dawn broke.

What had become familiar to her on land was now foreign and mysterious in water. Then, as quickly and quietly as the river’s water appeared, one day it was gone—back to the confines of its banks.

In Coleman’s words: “I am not the first to watch in wonder as the water rises, nor will I be the last.”

BIO
Ashleigh Coleman is a Mississippi based photographer and founding member of the Due South Co. She received a BFA from the University of South Carolina. Her work has been exhibited at shows across the United States, including her solo shows “Runes” at the Fischer Galleries in Jackson, Mississippi and “Piece of Heart” at the University of Mississippi’s Center for the Study of Southern Culture. Her work has also been exhibited at the Griffin Museum of Photography, Soho Photo Gallery in NYC, the University of West Virginia, the University of Southern Mississippi, and Barrister’s Gallery in New Orleans.

Coleman’s work can be seen in national publications including Southern Living, Oxford American Magazine, Garden & Gun Magazine, Click Magazine, Okra Magazine, Let’s Explore Magazine, and Southern Glossary Magazine.