Exhibitions Archive (Search Results)

Elaine Ling, Abandoned, Namib Desert V, 1997, gelatin silver print from Polaroid type-55 negative, 9/28, 58.0 cm x 45.0 cm
Gift of the artist, 2003, 2003.038

Elaine Ling, Abandoned, Namib Desert II, 1997, gelatin silver print from Polaroid type-55 negative, 5/28, 45.0 cm x 58.0 cm
Gift of the artist, 2003, 2003.035

Elaine Ling, Abandoned, Namib Desert III, 1997, gelatin silver print from Polaroid type-55 negative, 19/28, 58.0 cm x 45.0 cm
Gift of the artist, 2003, 2003.036

Elaine Ling, Abandoned, Namib Desert IV, 1997, gelatin silver print from Polaroid type-55 negative, 8/28, 58.0 cm x 45.0 cm
Gift of the artist, 2003, 2003.037

Elaine Ling, Abandoned, Namib Desert VI, 1997, gelatin silver print from Polaroid type-55 negative, 8/28, 58.0 cm x 45.0 cm
Gift of the artist, 2003, 2003.039

Elaine Ling, Abandoned, Namib Desert VII, 1997, gelatin silver print from Polaroid type-55 negative, 7/28, 58.0 cm x 45.0 cm
Gift of the artist, 2003, 2003.040

Elaine Ling, Abandoned, Namib Desert VIII, 1997, gelatin silver print from Polaroid type-55 negative, 10/28, 45.0 cm x 58.0 cm
Gift of the artist, 2003, 2003.041

Elaine Ling, Abandoned, Namib Desert IX, 1997, gelatin silver print from Polaroid type-55 negative, 4/28, 58.0 cm x 45.0 cm
Gift of the artist, 2003, 2003.042

Elaine Ling, Abandoned, Namib Desert X (Triptych), 1997, gelatin silver print from Polaroid type-55 negative, 5/28, 58.0 cm x 45.0 cm
Gift of the artist, 2003, 2003.043.A

Elaine Ling, Abandoned, Namib Desert XI, 1999, gelatin silver print from Polaroid type-55 negative, 8/28, 45.0 cm x 58.0 cm
Gift of the artist, 2003, 2003.044

Elaine Ling, Abandoned, Namib Desert XII, 1999, gelatin silver print from Polaroid type-55 negative, 5/28, 45.0 cm x 58.0 cm
Gift of the artist, 2003, 2003.045

Elaine Ling, Abandoned, Namib Desert XIII, 1999, gelatin silver print from Polaroid type-55 negative, 7/28, 45.0 cm x 58.0 cm
Gift of the artist, 2003, 2003.046

Elaine Ling, Abandoned, Namib Desert XIV, 1997, gelatin silver print from Polaroid type-55 negative, 2/28, 45.0 cm x 58.0 cm
Gift of the artist, 2003, 2003.047

Elaine Ling, Abandoned, Namib Desert XV, 1999, gelatin silver print from Polaroid type-55 negative, 1/28, 45.0 cm x 58.0 cm
Gift of the artist, 2003, 2003.048

Elaine Ling, Abandoned, Namib Desert XVII, 1999, gelatin silver print from Polaroid type-55 negative, 7/28, 58.0 cm x 45.0 cm
Gift of the artist, 2003, 2003.049

Elaine Ling, Abandoned, Namib Desert XVIII, 1999, gelatin silver print from Polaroid type-55 negative, 4/28, 58.0 cm x 45.0 cm
Gift of the artist, 2003, 2003.050

Elaine Ling, Abandoned, Namib Desert XIX, 1999, gelatin silver print from Polaroid type-55 negative, 4/28, 58.0 cm x 45.0 cm
Gift of the artist, 2003, 2003.051

Elaine Ling, Abandoned, Namib Desert XX, 1999, gelatin silver print from Polaroid type-55 negative, 5/28, 58.0 cm x 45.0 cm
Gift of the artist, 2003, 2003.052

Elaine Ling, Abandoned, Namib Desert XXI, 1999, gelatin silver print from Polaroid type-55 negative, 1/28, 58.0 cm x 45.0 cm
Gift of the artist, 2003, 2003.053

Elaine Ling, Abandoned, Namib Desert XXII, 1999, gelatin silver print from Polaroid type-55 negative, 2/28, 58.0 cm x 45.0 cm
Gift of the artist, 2003, 2003.054

Elaine Ling, Abandoned, Namib Desert XXIII, 1997, gelatin silver print from Polaroid type-55 negative, 2/28, 58.0 cm x 45.0 cm
Gift of the artist, 2003, 2003.055

Elaine Ling, Abandoned, Namib Desert I, 1997, gelatin silver print from Polaroid type-55 negative, 8/28, 45.0 cm x 58.0 cm
Gift of the artist, 2003, 2003.034

Elaine Ling, Abandoned, Namib Desert X (Triptych), 1997, gelatin silver print from Polaroid type-55 negative, 5/28, 58.0 cm x 45.0 cm
Gift of the artist, 2003, 2003.043.C

Elaine Ling, Abandoned, Namib Desert X (Triptych), 1997, gelatin silver print from Polaroid type-55 negative, 5/28, 58.0 cm x 45.0 cm
Gift of the artist, 2003, 2003.043.C

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Elaine Ling: Abandoned Namib Desert

October 8, 2020 – January 17, 2021

Location: Morris and Beverly Baker Gallery, 2nd floor

The black and white photographs of Elaine Ling’s Abandoned: NamibDesert feature the interiors of an abandoned community of workers’ houses in Africa. Reclaimed by the desert, Ling used her camera to frame the sand overtaking a diamond-mining ghost town.

In Ling’s words: “When I arrived, I found rows of utilitarian houses, sleeping in their bed of time. Once left to the unhindered advances of the enormous linear sand dunes rolling back from the sea, the rooms began filling up with sand and the very familiar objects of daily living took on a surreal affect. This place speaks of the intimate relationship between the forces of Nature and the man-made. Abandoned by man, these spaces have been reclaimed by the wind and the sand, reuniting the exterior and the interior once more. In this place's unrelenting sunlight and howling silence, I found somewhere that proclaims Nature as the final winner. Man’s absence is only acknowledged by the endless pulse of the moving dunes.” From an article by Elaine Ling published in LensCulture.

Born in Hong Kong, Elaine Ling moved to Canada at the age of nine. After receiving her medical degree from the University of Toronto, she practiced family medicine in Canada’s North, the Pacific Northwest, Abu Dhabi and Nepal. Ling’s photographs, widely exhibited and published, are in the permanent collections of numerous museum and private collections. Elaine passed away due to lung cancer on August 1, 2016. We thank Elaine Ling for her generous donation of artworks, and her brother, Edward Pong, for his assistance with this exhibition.