Article by Raine Blunk
Photo by Dylan DeRose
Florida: it might claim to be “The Sunshine State,” but according to Dylan DeRose, it’s arguably more abysmal than most of us imagine. It’s a state typically known for oranges, alligators, old people and a wide array of theme parks built to satisfy America’s needs for an escape from reality. Through enchanting places like Disney World and Universal Studios, Florida — and, specifically, Orlando — has established itself as a world far away from the banalities of reality.
But how far away are these manufactured realities from our everyday lives, anyway? DeRose, fourth-year photography major, is seeking to answer that question with his first solo exhibition “Orlando: A City by Dylan DeRose” opening tonight at 5 p.m. at Ashmore Gallery.
DeRose was born in Chicago, but moved to Florida when he was eight. “When I was starting to shoot this project I had a lot of pessimism — the residual effects of my teenage angst,” he says. “But over time, being at an age where … I can have conversations like an adult, I actually have a positive regard to the place compared to how cynical I felt.”
The moments captured in each photograph exist in DeRose’s mind not only as emotional triggers, but as ways to express his feelings about the environments themselves. “When I saw it, I saw it,” says DeRose, who often spent hours at a location exploring and re-photographing to achieve the desired effect.
That effect certainly illustrates DeRose’s somewhat misanthropic viewpoint on the true spirit of Orlando. “I had a very specific vision for how I wanted [the photos] to be, and they had to be cohesive … It had to be one distinct place,” says DeRose, who’s atmospherically dreary representations of Orlando highlight the “idiosyncrasies and quirks” that exist within artificially created Floridian environments. DeRose believes the kind of “thematic representations [of reality]” we see in amusement parks are “inaccurate.”
So what is the “real” Orlando? DeRose says he can’t define it for us. “I definitely have an idea of it, but … I think if you make some sort of grand declaration, part of the meaning is lost.”
Thankfully, DeRose is currently constructing a world within Ashmore Gallery to aid visitors in their understanding of his feelings about the city. By distributing maps that lead visitors to the gift shop (full of sculptures created by the artist himself,) and distributing limited edition Orlando postcards, DeRose hopes to formulate a false environment within the gallery that subversively perpetuates his vision.
The artist’s experiences working at the university museum helped influence his decisions while constructing the show.
“I’ve seen many different artists arrange the space in a very specific way to communicate an idea, like the way Fred Wilson arranged documents a particular way to contextualize history,” says DeRose, who started working at the museum only a month after it opened.
Strangely enough, DeRose admits that most Orlando natives in his demographic are still “attracted to the novelty” of central Florida’s theme parks. Even more than that, he says, they’re “attracted to the magic.” The falseness of that alluring “magic” is what DeRose is seeking to “blow up” and, in turn, expose through his photographs.
“Orlando: A City by Dylan DeRose” is exactly what it sounds like — and exactly the opposite. It’s a city built by DeRose just as much as it’s a city built by the fake“magic” forced upon it. By understanding and analyzing DeRose’s photographic interpretation of Orlando, we might even begin to spot the flaws that break apart our own fabricated realities.
For more information about the exhibit, visit the event’s Facebook page.
