“Shift” at the Bristol Art Museum (Bristol, RI), curated by Mary Dondero, closed last week, and I’m grateful to have this Studio Sunday to share observations and photos from its 7-week run. As noted in a previous post, I decided to let “the combination of materials, the art, speak for itself” without a lot of explanation. Here, I decode it…
The installation seen from a crouching position; image of Stonington, CT
The “tabletop landscape” consisted of a projector and six pieces from my ongoing Sidewalk Series. Twenty-five gorgeous landscapes that are being threatened by my very action of visiting them were projected on two upright pieces. For me, it was a confession of my complicity in global warming as the photos were mine, taken of places I’ve visited by plane, car, and train while spewing carbon in my wake.
The concrete pieces were made by casting single-use plastic, mostly water bottles, that I’ve used on these travels, carefully cataloged, and brought back to the studio. Embedded in the cast bottle is asphalt, the ubiquitous material that makes it way too easy to visit parts of our earth that are better off without human intervention.
The resulting installation presents our global situation, a species on the verge of extinction, yet offers some hope. Glimpses of still-intact landscapes, including the Grand Canyon, the Aeolian Islands, a coastal Connecticut town, and a sunset over Venice Beach, remind us of the crossroads we stand in. I leave viewers with two views of the future: strangled by the materials of growth and industry or something we can still save with personal choice and action.
Factors beyond my control left the work exhibited too low and unevenly lit. So it took a curious viewer to bend down and let their eyes adjust to understand the materials and meaning. They would need to stay in this crouched position for some time to see the images change.
In many ways, this is akin to the work we all need to do. It takes careful observation and personal discomfort to create change.
Top: View from a crouching position; image of the Grand Canyon South Rim, AZ
Left to right: image from Sedona, AZ, image from Kure Beach, NC