Artwork - Geometry and Territory

030_03_895-899

This series builds off of 027_03_732-751 by shifting the focus from fields of abstract geometric figures to the silhouettes of figures that can be associated with a particular object or the shape of the human body. Like the previous series, this field exists over a non-representational ground. In the process, a tension between the blurred field and a hard-lined field emerges.

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These drawings and the poems that precede them arose from the thesis work for the MFA that I received from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2011. For quite some time, I did not include these poems and drawings in what I consider my body of work. This was largely a result of what I felt was an unsuccessful initial presentation alongside images and paintings that, in reality, were really part of a different line of thought.

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The text is from the final the thesis of the MFA that I received from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2011. For quite some time, I did not include these poems and drawings in what I consider my body of work. This was largely a result of what I felt was an unsuccessful initial presentation alongside images and paintings that, in reality, were really part of a different line of thought.

026_08_730

The text is from the final the thesis of the MFA that I received from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2011. For quite some time, I did not include these poems and drawings in what I consider my body of work. This was largely a result of what I felt was an unsuccessful initial presentation alongside images and paintings that, in reality, were really part of a different line of thought.

008_09_213

Artifacts that are personally relevant are quite distinct from those that are relevant to a wider range of people. Some objects, however, may hold extreme significance to an individual while also evoking a broader class of objects to which a number of people are attached. This work explores this tension between personal and universal through the practice of collage – both physical and with the aid of a camera.

008_04_199-212

Artifacts that are personally relevant are quite distinct from those that are relevant to a wider range of people. Some objects, however, may hold extreme significance to an individual while also evoking a broader class of objects to which a number of people are attached. This work explores this tension between personal and universal through the practice of collage – both physical and with the aid of a camera.

008_02_167-198

Artifacts that are personally relevant are quite distinct from those that are relevant to a wider range of people. Some objects, however, may hold extreme significance to an individual while also evoking a broader class of objects to which a number of people are attached. This work explores this tension between personal and universal through the practice of collage – both physical and with the aid of a camera.

007_02_158-166

Archives, slides containing specimens for examination, traces of past events, packaging, letters, envelopes, and sealing wax to ensure security are the dominant material of this work. They are combined on panels that once held an earlier painting, but that has since been erased. Together they form a composition that explores transparency, intimacy, and traces of life.

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This work dwells in an empty building on the eve of its transformation from its initial use to a program suited to the evolving nature of the heart of the American City. Through examining and recording traces of the past, a field of reference is created that sparks the imagination. The mind connects these elements to the world beyond the walls. A new geography is formed.

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The era of global mobility has made it possible to connect disparate locales with increasing ease. The global north is compressed into an increasingly homogenous zone of wealthy consumers while the south house cheap labor in factories. This relationship was inaugurated in the colonial era as chattel slavery returned. The Caribbean Islands and North American Cities played a significant role. This work explores that history and its legacy today.

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People pass through places like Union Station in Chicago and other cities around the world every day without pausing to look at the truly remarkable building, seeing each other and all the artifacts making the moment. Through photography and geometry framing, hiding, and combing, time is arrested and an encounter held for examination.

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The consequences of enslavement are inscribed in the landscape. Land is controlled and people are brought under the influence of charismatic leaders. The lines that I draw can, however, protest past decisions leading to atrocities and give birth to a new territory.

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The time spent researching the context in which each treaty signing occurred – the broader effect this event had on the world, the symbolic and real nature, the other events occurring the make it relevant – is distilled in text that opens that vast space at which this work stands at the edge.

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The line between past and future, one side and the other, two opponents, perhaps future allies, provide the context for this work. The rooms in which these meetings occur, the focus.

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Those who inhabit this moment make the future via the present materials. This formation will be guided by negotiating the difference between what we think of as the world and how we see the horizon before us as an individual.

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