Middlelife II exhibition by Rajah Bose continues at MAC Gallery through Feb. 27

WENATCHEE — An exhibition by Spokane artist Rajah Bose titled middlelife ii: train songs is continuing at the MAC Gallery at Wenatchee Valley College through Feb. 27.

The exhibition includes photographs, videos, musical compositions and sculptural elements drawn from Bose’s ongoing middlelife series. The project examines memory, documentation and personal origin through imagery gathered during travel across India and the United States.

A First Friday reception and performance is scheduled for Friday, Feb. 6, from 5 to 7 p.m. As part of the evening, Bose will present a live performance of his newest music project, Raj Saint Paul, beginning at 6 p.m. in the Grove Recital Hall, concurrent with the gallery exhibition.

The performance will feature music from Bose’s album The First Sounds, accompanied by a projected film composed of videos, photographs and stories collected during rail travel. The album was written over a 20-year period and revisited following a cross-country train trip, according to exhibition materials.

middlelife ii is the second installment of Bose’s middlelife series. While the first iteration focused on a retrospective of his photojournalism work and the role of images in memory, the current exhibition centers on geographic and familial origins. Bose’s father is the son of an Indian factory worker, and his mother is the daughter of a Wisconsin farmer. The exhibition juxtaposes images from India and the United States, pairing photographs from rural and urban settings into diptychs that create new visual relationships.

In an artist statement accompanying the show, Bose reflects on photography as both evidence and interpretation, writing, “Photographs, regardless of how they’re made, are no truer than any story we’ve told ourselves.”

Music is integrated into the exhibition through The First Sounds, an album of train songs inspired by travel and storytelling along Indian and American rail lines. The album is available for listening in the gallery via headphones and will be performed live during First Friday events.

Bose has worked as a newspaper photojournalist, commercial photographer and filmmaker. He lives in Spokane with his wife, Ellen, who is also an artist.

Spin Magazine described Bose’s songwriting as, “This is some serious songwriting. It’s like a combination of Nick Cave and Jesse Winchester.”