|
|
what: installation, intervention, painting, photography, drawing, printmaking
Home | Artist Statement | Resume | Westering | Wrapper Paintings
STATEMENT My current project, titled “Westering”, explores places and features of the American west that stand as monuments (both monumental and underwhelming) to the human activity of possession. They are platforms for physical as well as ideological shifts that traverse the land and perpetuate the nation. These shifts leave discernable histories mapped out in the structures of the American landscape. The success and excess of our culture stand side by side, as do the mythic and the banal, the ridiculous and the epic. I use the structure of the interstate highway systems and the tradition of the American road trip to generate markers of interconnectivity. I create wooden structures based on elements of roadside museums, state and national parks, tourist kiosks, souvenir rock shops and the ubiquitous billboards that dot the landscape. On the structures that resemble signage, I display photographs that focus on singular objects or features in the land. Many of these photographs are subtly augmented in Photoshop to create possible “sculptural” points of interest in the landscape. Some are more obviously altered than others, leading the viewer to question: Is this really out there? Have I seen something like this before? In other structures, souvenir rocks stand on spindly-legged platforms and fragile plywood display stands, highlighting and questioning the practice of removing pieces of a landscape to commemorate or legitimize our experiences with it.
|
||||
|
