Farm Projects
Farm Projects is pleased to present Multiplex Realities. In this solo exhibition, artist Cole Barash offers a multifaceted exploration of Cape Cod photography that honors traditional documentary approaches while simultaneously pushing that medium beyond its conceptual and technical limits into the world of fine art sculpture.
The exhibition unfolds in three parts. The first features photographs taken during a four-day solo excursion the artist took from Nauset Light to Provincetown in the spring of 2021. These images, which pay homage to the lineage of modern American photographers, resulted in a book project published by Neck Press with poetry by award-winning poet, Eileen Myles.
In contrast, Barash’s photo-based sculptures expand beyond traditions. In these works, images are printed on rough, unconventional, 3D surfaces such as burlap, tent material, and fiberglass, emphasizing the materiality and dimensionality of the works. Of this series, the artist writes: “This work is part of a conversation and experience
I have had with my father since his passing in 2020. When I am alone out in the wilderness for several days, I connect with him on a spiritual level.” This body of work will be part of a forthcoming book in 2025 with TBW/Deadbeat Club.
Finally, in Ecosystems, Barash offers an interactive installation that examines the complex relationship humans have with water—how we navigate, interact with, consume, protect, and sometimes damage this vital and ever-changing element.
While Barash’s exploration of family, the natural world, and human existence invites audiences to reflect on interconnectedness, happiness, societal disconnection, perseverance, and labor, his experimental use of the printed image simultaneously asks us to see possibilities for photography in an endlessly expanding field.
About the Artist Cole Barash (b. 1987) is a visual artist, working in the mediums of digital, analog, and archival photography, sculpture, and film. His portraiture and still lifes became known for their organic and spontaneous sense of intimacy. Barash's work focuses on the conversation of color and composition between two objects or moments and often results in the format of a book or an installation. Having spent a large portion of his upbringing in natural environments, nature as a form, presence, and phenomena of the physical world continues to contribute to his artworks and practice.
Barash's work has been exhibited internationally and his books are part of several public collections including the Franklin Furnace Archive and MoMA Manhattan Artists’ Books Collection.