10/16: Unmoored-Untethered Exhibit
Fine Arts Center for the New River Valley invites the community to the opening reception of Unmoored – Untethered, a photography exhibition by Edward Coe, on Friday, October 16, from 6-8 p.m. The reception will take place in the Edna B. Love Gallery at 21 West Main Street in downtown Pulaski.
Combining experimental transparency prints, large-format photographs, and sweeping panoramas, Unmoored – Untethered explores how photographs connect us to places, memories, and our evolving sense of self. The exhibition invites visitors to experience photography through both the images themselves and the interplay of light, movement, and shadow.
Coe’s experimental, kinetic transparency prints shift gently against the wall, casting shadows that slip in and out of sharp focus. Alongside them, conventional prints and expansive panoramas offer a contrasting sense of stillness and stability. Together, these approaches create a conversation between the elusive nature of memory and the power of an image to anchor us.
The photographs bring together moments revisited and newly discovered. By returning to images stored on old drives while also making new photographs, Coe has created a visual diary that draws connections between his past and present. His work considers what we hold onto, how those connections change, and the possibilities that emerge when we begin again.
That exploration carries particular significance for Coe. In November 2022, a severe cycling accident resulted in a traumatic brain injury that profoundly changed his relationship with his identity and creative practice. For two years, making art brought difficult comparisons to the person he had been, and he stepped away from it.
Over the past year, returning to photography has become a source of reconnection and discovery. Unmoored – Untethered marks his return to creating and sharing physical artwork, reflecting both the challenges of that experience and the deliberate joy of building new connections through art.
“This exhibition marks my return to the physical world,” Coe writes in his artist statement. “What started as a jarring plunge into a stranger’s world has become a joyful reconnection with the echoes of my past and a thrilling exploration of the bonds we still share.”
The October 16 opening reception offers an opportunity to meet Coe and experience an exhibition that brings an inventive approach to photographic presentation together with a deeply personal exploration of memory and renewal.
