Plant-like tendrils dangle from the ceiling. Dried leaves and branches mingle with woven shapes from which images of tropical hibiscus flowers and other exotic flora emerge as if by magic. Walking into SF Camerawork’s current exhibition, “Matter in the Hothouse” is like stumbling into a psychedelic jungle — a botanic wonderland that feels both familiar and surreal. On view through Saturday, the exhibition showcases the work of Chicago-based photographer and visual artist Aimée Beaubien, who beat a pool of more than 200 applicants vying to show their work at the gallery inside Minnesota Street Project in San Francisco’s Dogpatch neighborhood. Blending photography with collage, sculpture, textiles and other media, Beaubien’s proposal captured the imagination of judges who responded to the way the artist blurs the boundaries of photography and pushes the medium into new and interesting forms.
