AUSTIN (KXAN) — With the Interstate 35 expansion starting near downtown Austin, local photographer Liz Moskowitz will debut a collection this weekend documenting the community members and businesses impacted by the highway project.
The collection “A Path of Impermanence: life along a highway expansion” will hold its opening night at The Future Front House (located at 1900 E. 12th St.) on Saturday evening, from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. The event will highlight the collection of photos at the evening reception alongside a 7 p.m. Q&A discussion, per a release from Moskowitz. It’ll also include Spanish and American Sign Language translators as well as artifacts from several businesses on display.
Moskowitz is working as the resident artist at The Future Front House this year and said the community space supported the project alongside the city of Austin’s Economic Development Department and the Dallas-based Summerlee Foundation. Following Saturday’s open reception, the exhibit will remain on display at The Future Front House through Oct. 29.
Moskowitz captured all the images included in the collection with a 120mm film with a medium format camera. She said she pulled inspiration from news articles, archival research and commutes along the corridor between Manor Road and 51st Street, adding many of the small businesses impacted by the expansion “have been a part of Austin’s cultural landscape for years.”
“Moskowitz’s images of the people, places, and landscapes impacted by an impending large-scale highway expansion speak to broader themes of displacement, community, memory, and change,” the release read in part.
In a phone call with KXAN on Tuesday, Moskowitz said she wanted to keep people at the forefront of the project and have it centered around photographs of them and their testimonies. She said she hoped her piece could be a “vessel for people’s experiences” and centered the project around a core theme: “How do we remember things that are no longer here?”
More details on the exhibit and Saturday’s event are available online.
