Ralph Lemon's exhibition at Paula Cooper Gallery presents 13 black-and-white photographs and three short videos focusing on sites in the Mississippi Delta connected to the 1955 lynching of Emmett Till. Rather than dramatizing the incident, Lemon records physical traces of the locations—such as Bryant's Grocery and Meat Market, the barn where Till was killed, the Tallahatchie River, and a funeral home—capturing dilapidated buildings and landscapes that suggest history slipping away. The show includes the titular video "From Out of Space" (2018–21), which offers closeups and drone footage of these sites, creating a meditative, detective-like examination of memory and erasure.
This exhibition matters because it engages with ongoing struggles over historical commemoration in the American South, where markers of Till's lynching have been repeatedly vandalized or stolen, and the Trump administration has considered removing them entirely. Lemon's work, created before and after Dana Schutz's controversial painting "Open Casket" sparked debates about racial exploitation in art, offers a subtle, Black-authored perspective on atrocity and memory. By focusing on architectural remnants and natural elements like the pink-brown river, Lemon transforms Till into a fundamental, elemental presence, resisting attempts to erase history and contributing to broader conversations about racism, memorialization, and the role of art in confronting the past.