Info
Lincoln University, PA, Amos Hall Gallery
Ava Hassinger & Christina Kerns
September 9 – October 21, 2025
Opening Reception: September 9, 5-7 PM
Exhibition Statement
The word Rubbernecking, meaning to look or stare with curiosity, often at an event which is dramatic, can be considered in multiple ways. On a road trip, much of the journey is spent looking out the window while driving, observing the new and unusual sights just outside. Simultaneously, there is an inevitable daydreaming or looking back - thinking about the past, memory, and what might be left behind.
Professors Ava Hassinger and Christina Kerns explore ideas of motion, time, memory, culture, and reality in the exhibition Rubbernecking and Other Tales, on display in Lincoln University’s Amos Hall Gallery. In May 2025, the artists embarked on a month-long road trip through the southern half of the continental United States, documenting their experience through photography and video.
Both artists' practices and education are deeply rooted in a photographic language and shared interest in the influence of technology and digital experiences on the body and mind. Hassinger’s work often results in a sculptural or performative product utilizing repurposed materials, with reference to the relationship between the body and digital technology. While Kerns is also interested in the impact of digital experiences, her work largely focuses on the role photography and social media play in an emotional and psychological understanding of personal identity.
Hassinger and Kerns reflected on the parallel between the diversity of the land and American culture as they travelled through locations from Philadelphia to Los Angeles and back. They considered the current point in history, politically and socially, and how this shifted as they entered different regions and spaces. Through the deeply rooted photographic tradition of the road trip, they remained acutely aware of their reception and physical presence as women with cameras in unfamiliar spaces.
The artists spent much of their trip in the Southwest, primarily in New Mexico, Arizona, and Joshua Tree, California. For both, this landscape felt exceptionally unfamiliar. Perhaps influenced by the focus on aliens in Roswell, NM, or feeling the effects of the dry heat, they both remarked on their extra-terrestrial alienness to their environment. How does one look at a space differently when it feels bizarre? How do the familiar spaces (rest stops, restaurants, the road) become a comfort from the unknown? What would aliens think?
As the artists weaved in and out of fearlessness and apprehension to escape their everyday lives, they explored external and internal spaces unknown. Photographs and videos showcase the points of contact with the country; however, much of the trip was spent in the car. Travelling through time, from Eastern, Central, Mountain, and Pacific time zones (often questioning which zone they were in), the artists talked, thought, listened, and looked. Despite the physical closeness to each other, there was also a quiet space for internal reflection; Each considering personal experiences left in other spaces and the ‘realness’ of their remembering. Hours of highway hypnosis, eyes and skin burning from the unrelenting sun, became an opportunity to retreat into memory and imagination. What happens when trust in memory is abandoned and a new vision that combines real and imagined forms is created? Is this mirage any less real?