Traveling by way of Constructed Vistas
BFA Thesis, November, 2007
The Rainbow Gallery, SUNY Brockport, Brockport, NY
Through this work I am exploring the connection between organic and synthetic forms, and also the reality of constructed landscapes. I have juxtaposed trees and environments with decorative patterns used to make our clothes and homes aesthetically pleasing. It is interesting how the repetitive nature of hand-made patterns mimics the mathematical growth patterns of trees and plants.
Fabricated landscape has a rich historical tradition. A Spanish missionary brought palm tree cuttings from the Canary Islands to southern California in the 1700s. Tulips traveled from Turkey to Holland in 1554 by way of an Austrian diplomat. The “Weeping Willow” is an eighteenth-century garden import brought to Stamford, Connecticut by Samuel Johnson, who admired them in Alexander pope’s garden along the Thames. Plants, flowers and trees have been widely re-located throughout history, creating a false perception of an indigenous landscape.
In response to these ideas, I have constructed two landscapes: one the scroll, constructed in the studio, and a more literal assemblage taking the form of an installation. The scroll consists of photographs I took in the Rochester area and northern California, combined with photographs sent to me by friends living all over the country. The photographs depict environments, trees, and landscapes to which we are significantly connected. By combining these disparate vistas into a continuous landscape I essentially made one that doesn’t exist. This is not unlike the hybrid eco-systems we see when we look into our backyards.
These vistas are silhouetted and combined with tessellated “pattern-scapes,” reminiscent of similar qualities in M.C. Escher’s woodcut, Metamorphose II. The visual act of keeping the landscape black represents the potential apocalypse facing us in the form of global warming.
I have, through images, returned to northern California, where I spent two important years of my life. I traveled to regions I have never been to. This parallels the journey I have taken this semester in making my largest yet two-dimensional piece, creating my first installation, and the surprises I encountered throughout. I have traveled most through the process of longing for a new environment to experience.
Installation
Changing patterns on a loop projected through trees onto cloth, dimensions variable, 2007
Scroll
Oil, graphite, Xerographic transfer, and India ink on tea-stained paper, 18” x 298,” 2007
