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PRE 2008
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| Through my invented landscapes and small-scale dioramas, I question the relationship between city-life and the rural, nature vs. the urban, the meadow against the grid. Some questions I am raising are as follows. Is nature more desirable than the city? Are we predisposed to flourish in one over the other? Are the distinctions between the two real or imagined? And, as an artist, what is the more fertile ground in which to plant oneself? Is it preferable to collect ones thoughts on a nighttime hike while staring into the darkness? Or is the unrelenting noise of the grid the richer lode from which to mine? After initially posing these questions it is only by now removing the self-imposed duality of nature vs. city that I have been able to successfully create the more "natural" synthesis of the two. As this internal struggle, for me a daily obsession, plays out in my mind it only comes to fruition through my dioramas. They are the physical manifestation of this internal struggle. I take comfort in my sense of dislocation and use the dioramas to create a physical space I find non-existent in my everyday experience. I am an artist with an overly acute sensitivity to my immediate surroundings. Life on the grid can be brutal. Extended time in nature often produces feelings of separation from ones fellow man. It is only through the co-mingling of two seemingly disparate environments that I create my oasis of palimpsest tranquility. 2003 |
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Top/ Middle Dioramas: As an artist living in New York, I frequently feel physically detached from the city. As a result of this feeling of seperation I often in my mind create little physical spaces in which to live comfortably. My mind wanders best when doing seemingly mundane tasks like waiting in line for coffee at a street corner mini bodega. My favorite ones are usually stainless steel and plexi glass and staffed by one person pouring coffee and serving donuts and drinks. These little stands act as a little oasis where I stop thinking about my immediate surroundings and drift into more creative thought. The resulting dioramas are 3-D palimpsests where my immediate surroundings find peace with preexisting memory.
Top: 44"x28"x21" high (topography).......... each little 'unit' approx. 4"x3"x5" high... balsa wood, hardened sand Middle: 36"x22"x12" high.....lead tape, hardened sand, sound element
Bottom Diorama ... is a direct inspiration from a favorite book as a boy, Andrew Henry's Meadow. The story is about a boy who runs away from home after being yelled at for building one too many contraptions around the house. He settles into a local field and as word gets out is surrounded by many other children who have also run away from home. I often thought of the book when walking through forests, specifically where tall grass or trees met the edge of a man-made clearing. measures 4'x8'x16" high.....flows water........ hidden sound element .....object protruding from roof in second image rotates
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