Artist Profile: Lindsey Rothrock

Lindsey Rothrock is a fine art photographer based in Madison whose work explores the ways we carry memory in our bodies and how that memory shapes our understanding of ourselves and the world. Rothrock's images have been featured in juried exhibitions across the Midwest. She has held solo shows in the Northeastern and Midwestern regions of the United States as well.

1) What has been your biggest success, in addition to your biggest challenge, as an artist thus far in 2021?

My biggest challenge has been creating work. COVID restrictions have significantly limited my ability to make art in collaboration with others. As for my biggest success, I had my first solo shows since undergrad—one in Cambridge, Massachusetts; the other in Madison at Arts and Literature Laboratory. This past year has been strange and frustrating in many ways. I am deeply thankful that new work and new shows could come out of such a difficult time.

2) What is your creative muse?

Questions define and inspire my work. Recently I've been wrestling with questions about memory, in particular.

3) Any details you're willing to share about your current work(s) in progress?

I've been sorting through home videos of my dad's family from when he was growing up. I plan to use that footage in a project which will explore how memory is passed down genetically and through family structures.

4) Fave installation, exhibition, writing and/or performance by another artist that you've recently encountered?

This isn't that recent, but it's a show I return to. I saw Tyler Mitchell's exhibit I Can Make You Feel Good in New York City right before the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic. His focus on creating the idyllic space for Black bodies is an inspiration and a balm. The utopia he portrays has, this past year and a half, seemed so out of reach. Perhaps that's why I return to his work—in search of what could be.