Amber Toplisek

We all feel alone sometimes. Perhaps in grief, exploration, or our thoughts.

In these times to feel power in community is to feel moved. Touched by small actions and inspiration for change, genuine human feelings - eyes becoming heavy, hands reaching out to someone in desperation, a sincere compliment.

Help Me Get There brings together the work of Madeline Pieschel and Rebecca Sciandra. Together, these artists facilitate a conversation concerning human emotions of vulnerability, anxiety, and intimacy through the use of photography. The resulting imagery is positioned to inspire a cyclical thought process. How do intimate acts change when they are performed in a public setting? And in what ways can we engage strangers in the age of virtual technology?

About the Artists

Madeline Pieschel was born and raised in Springfield, Minnesota and hold a Bachelor's degree in Journalism from Marquette University. She is currently an MFA candidate at Georgia State University focusing on the photographic and moving image.

She makes photographs and video that aim to depolarize existences, subverting dominant narratives into micro-narratives that are personal and agile. Although photographs are fixed and still, she does not believe in stasis. Our associations, memories, thoughts, feelings, and actions constantly shift trajectories on a daily basis. Everything is constantly moving, acting, and reacting. How can each of us create interactions and connections that counteract this static illusion of dichotomy, definition, and control?

Rebecca Sciandra (b.1996) is a photographic artist based in Atlanta, Georgia. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Photography from Georgia State University.

Her photographs explore ideas of solitude, death and religious themes and imagery, and how they are entwined together with her own personal wounds.

The pop-up exhibition took place on August 2nd 2019 in Amber Bernard's studio at the Goat Farm Arts Center in Atlanta, GA.