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Helena, Arkansas, from the series "Sleeping by the Mississippi," edition 1/5

A work made of chromogenic print.

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  • A work made of chromogenic print.

Date:

2002

Artist:

Alec Soth
American, born 1969

About this artwork

For his series Sleeping by the Mississippi, the Minnesota-based photographer Alec Soth made a series of road trips, meandering down the Mississippi River from Minnesota to Louisiana, looking for the abject and beautiful. A discarded mattress abandoned in the stagnant waters of the Arkansas floodplain conjures the series’ central themes of sleep, dreams, loss, and slow cycles of change. Previously an epicenter of domestic trade and commerce, the Mississippi once brought wealth and immigration to the region. Now, Helena is one of the poorest communities in the country. Like his perambulatory travels, Soth’s pictures never follow a direct narrative, nor do they yield a faithful “social document” of degraded life along the Mississippi. Rather, he offers poetic images through the lens of one photographer’s experience of the American heartland.

Status

Currently Off View

Department

Photography and Media

Artist

Alec Soth

Title

Helena, Arkansas, from the series "Sleeping by the Mississippi," edition 1/5

Place

United States (Artist's nationality:)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

Made 2002

Medium

Chromogenic print

Dimensions

Image/paper, sight: 100.5 × 126 cm (39 5/8 × 49 5/8 in.); Frame: 104.3 × 129.7 × 4.9 cm (41 1/8 × 51 1/8 × 1 15/16 in.)

Credit Line

Gift of Marilyn and Larry Fields

Reference Number

2008.785

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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