Auburn art museum exhibits new and recent works by artist Bethany Collins

Language is a focal point for the exhibition’s centerpiece. Collins began the series “The Southern Review” when asked what it meant to be a Southern artist. Pages from the quarterly literary journal are hung in approximately 5-by-9-foot grids. Widely considered “the voice of the South,” the publication did not feature African American authors until the mid-'80s. Collins preserves titles, authors and footnotes as originally printed in the 1985 anniversary issues but rearranges the text and order, hiding large sections with charcoal rectangles to leave out context and create a new narrative.

The exhibition also includes the "Rose Ballad" series, a collection of charcoal drawings on sheet music sourced from the Library of Congress. These 19th-century documents feature rose illustrations and Collins’ seemingly random dark swashes and marks. Roses represent different things to the recipient and giver, as lyrics describe emotions from hope to despair. Collins selected this motif because the rose is also the U.S. national flower. Like other symbols — from monuments to songs to flags — the rose represents individuals and the nation.     

An emerging practice for Collins is her sculptural work, highlighted in the "Old Ship” series. Works are cast from handmade paper and granite dust particles from a destroyed Confederate monument. This mixed media piece will appear in “Monuments,” a 2025 exhibition organized by LAXART and the Museum of Contemporary Art. Collaborating with Dieu Donné of Brooklyn, New York, Collins molded these casts based on architectural details from the Old Ship AME Zion Church. The pieces honor the building and congregation that hosted prominent Black speakers like Frederick Douglass, Senator Blanche K. Bruce and Booker T. Washington.

“The space that is created allows for the exaltation of another space, and this is a church that is the oldest Black church in Montgomery,” Collins said, noting the landmark’s role within the Civil Rights Movement.

For Collins, the answer around what it means to be a Southern artist is one she says she often doesn’t know how to answer or answers, in her words, selflishly. “I know this place, and I do not know this place,” she explained. "What does it mean to love a place that doesn't always love you in return?”