The Seventh Bardo: Photographs by Beth Lilly
May 24 - Aug 23, 2025
The Do Good Fund Gallery
THE SEVENTH BARDO was shot entirely while driving on the interstates of the Southeast. I grew up in the Southeastern cities of Charlotte, North Carolina and Atlanta, Georgia during the 70’s, a time when the new interstate system was a major agent in the transformations going on in that region. As a young woman, the interstate symbolized freedom from isolation and was a doorway to exciting new experiences. As an adult, I often turned to the interstate in times of uncertainty, seeking the kind of introspection that I could only find on a long drive through its empty landscapes. ‘Bardo’ is a Tibetan term, meaning ‘an in-between space’, and usually refers the state of existence between death and rebirth. I am proposing that driving on the interstate is a kind of bardo. It’s in between the place we’ve left and our final destination, with hours and miles to traverse in-between.
A meditation on the modern journey, the landscapes comprising The Seventh Bardo re-envision the view outside the window as a no-man’s land, far removed from the ordinary routines of daily life. While the landscapes are shot handheld, the portraits are taken by cameras mounted on tripods and using a remote cable. From the tens of thousands of images shot, I select photographs of people who appear to be lost in thought and recontextualize them as the denizens of a transcendent limbo. In exhibition, the landscapes are printed large, reflecting the monumentality of the interstate structures and vast spaces. The portraits are a more intimate size, scattered between the landscapes in small groups, mimicking encounters on the highway.
Beth Lilly
Beth Lilly is an artist whose photographs, installations and videos investigate how we become what we are and the role choice, chance and circumstance play in that ongoing evolution. Her work resides in the permanent collections of the High Museum, the New Mexico Museum of Art, The Ogden Museum of Southern Art, MOCA GA, the Zuckerman Museum and many private collections. Her critically acclaimed performance/interactive project “The Oracle @ WiFi” was published by Kehrer Verlag and other projects have been featured in ‘Noplaceness: Art in a Post-Urban Landscape’ and ‘Earth Now: American Landscape Photographers and the Environment’. Recent exhibitions include New Mexico Museum of Art, The High Museum of Art, the Zuckerman Museum, Spalding Nix Fine Art, Whitespace Gallery, the Atlanta Contemporary Art Center, and the Center for Fine Art Photography. A Hambidge Fellow, she also received grants and awards from the Atlanta Photography Group, New Orleans Photo Alliance, Fulton County Arts Council, Society for Photographic Education and Atlanta Celebrates Photography. Her work has been reproduced and reviewed in such publications as Lenscratch, Lensculture, Art Papers, Papermag, Burnaway, The Bitter Southerner, Atlanta Magazine and ArtsATL. In addition to her personal work, she teaches, curates, and serves on the Board of the Atlanta Photography Group. Lilly holds an MFA in Photography from Georgia State University and an A.B.J. in Telecommunication Arts from the University of Georgia. She currently lives and farms in Clarkston, Georgia.