Nathan Lyons' Photographic Diptychs Explore Semiotic Landscape at Bruce Silverstein Gallery

Nathan Lyons presented his exhibition "Return Your Mind to Its Upright Position" at Bruce Silverstein Gallery from October 30 to December 20, 2014. The show featured photographic diptychs from his 1998-2014 work, displayed as five-by-seven-inch gelatin silver prints mounted in pairs. Lyons' consistent methodology over four decades examines billboards, storefronts, graffiti, murals, memorials, placards, and posters to reveal collective desires, fears, anxieties, and ambitions. His fourth book shares the exhibition's title and includes a miniature retrospective section contextualizing his vision. Themes of politics, race, war, death, loss, and love thread through the narrative. One powerful diptych juxtaposes a Reebok advertisement featuring rapper 50 Cent with a Crime Stoppers billboard showing a 14-year-old African-American boy, highlighting racial dynamics and advertising strategies. The exhibition opened with an image of an open hand bearing the phrase "Don't Believe Your Eyes," questioning photographic truthfulness and mental perception. During the exhibition's run, national media coverage of Eric Garner's death and subsequent protests mirrored Lyons' concerns about image interpretation and societal trust. His work demonstrates how images become interactive and malleable when presentation determines meaning.