Lincoln and Larson – Spring SOLOS and a Sesquicentennial

Spring SOLOS and a Sesquicentennial. That just rolls right off of the tongue, doesn’t it?

Of the wild and wonderful things coming to Arlington Arts Center for Spring SOLOS, we wanted to take the time to tell you about Nate Larson’s Escape Routes. This project features a series photographs, which document the path John Wilkes Booth used to flee Washington, DC after assassinating President Abraham Lincoln, and will be on view in his show in the 2015 Spring SOLOS exhibition.

The show opens Saturday, April 18th and oddly enough April 15 (TODAY) marks the 150th anniversary — or the sesquicentennial — of the shooting.

Nate’s series follows Booth’s escape route and documents different points along it. 150 years after this historic event, Booth’s escape reflects a slice of quotidian Americana. The photographs show everything from dumpsters in an alleyway behinds Ford’s Theater; tourists snapping photos in downtown DC; suburban homes; dilapidated barns; and open meadows.

In his SOLOS proposal, Nate writes:

It feels pressing to me to exhibit the work in the area that produced it, and Arlington Arts Center is well positioned between the site of the shooting (Ford’s Theater) and the site of death (the former Garrett’s farm). The escape route does not go through Arlington, but after reviewing maps, it could easily have taken that path. I like this notion of the hypothetical path and almost histories – it would only take one variable to skew the historical details.

Come to the opening reception on April 18 to welcome Nate and his fellow SOLOS artists, then chat with them at the Gallery Talk on May 23! See more of Nate’s project in this Slate article