Mahber Shaw’ate (Association of 7), are photographs of temporary sculptural installations that investigate permutational possibilities and the disjuncture between physical and abstract materiality. The works appropriate the framework of an east African alphabet script (Tigrinya, Petros’ first language) and found cardboard boxes. Petros integrates performative strategies, sculpture, and installation with legacies of landscape imagery to create a series of photographic tableaus. Each photograph depicts a specific arrangement constructed in various locations around Santa Barbara. The temporary structures merge possibilities inherent to specific cultural references: an African alphabet (a parallel model for seriality) and western minimalist traditions. Petros’ photographs present a hybridized third form, which extracts liberally from both.
Dawit L. Petros was born in Asmara, Eritrea and raised in Kenya and Canada. He currently lives in Brooklyn, NY. Petros received his M.F.A at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA in 2007 and his B.F.A in Photography at Concordia University, Montreal, Canada in 2003. Petros has shown at The Studio Museum, New York, NY, Sikkema Jenkins & Co, New York, NY, and the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, Detroit, MI. He is represented by Alexander Gray Associates, New York, NY.
Special Thanks to:
The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, New York, NY; Susan E. Bower Exhibition Fund, Santa Barbara, CA; Casa Magazine, Santa Barbara, CA; Brush & Associates, Santa Barbara, CA; Santa Barbara Independent; Santa Barbara News-Press; and Wayne McCall & Associates, Santa Barbara, CA.