statement

"Landscape shapes culture."

-Terry Tempest Williams

Having lived most of my life in the big-empty-quiet of rural, central United States, I am drawn to the potential of open spaces.  I began this project during an artist residency at Anderson Ranch Art Center near Aspen, Colorado, where I was living among mountains for the first time.  While the Rocky Mountains are undeniably beautiful, being surrounded by them made me feel claustrophobic and trapped.  In this travel sized viewing box made of glass and wood, angled mirrors reflect the sky above and expand it downward, erasing everything in between, and imposing a flat horizon over any landscape.  

Since my background is in sculpture I approached the project as with my other work in site-specific installation, considering spacial relationships and the history and meaning of a particular place.  It was not until a conversation with photographer David Hilliard, that I even considered this work to be related to photography.  It seems I needed to start from scratch and build a device using some of the earliest photo technology to realize this projects photo related concerns: seeing, viewing, framing and the very concept of landscape itself.

I have since moved several times and have explored my new surroundings with this Portable Horizon, watching the world like a living movie, and capturing still images through the viewfinder.  The characteristics of different landscapes merge into one view, as mountains, forests, and cities become the familiar, open expanse of the Great Plains where I was raised.

bio

born: 1982, Brookings, South Dakota, United States

education

Cranbrook Academy of Art, MFA, 2009
Bethel University, BA, 2004

selected awards/honors

Smack Mellon Studio Fellowship, 2012
Notre Dame of Maryland Purchase Award, 2012
Philadelphia Art Hotel Artists Residency, 2011
Chenven Foundation Artist Grant, 2011

selected publications

Ober, Cara, "The Real America, To Go, Urbanite Magazine, February 2012
Pastan, Rachel, "Field Trip: Alternative Spaces, Institute of Contemporary Art Blog, September 2011
Open Letters Monthly, "An Authorless Chorus, October 2010
Fletcher, Harrell, and Miranda July, Learning to Love You More, New York: Prestel Publishing, 2007

selected solo or two-person exhibits

Grizzly Grizzly: Out of Context, Philadelphia, PA 2011
Seed Space: Portable Horizon Project, Nashville, TN 2010
Eastern University: Nervous Expression, St. Davids, PA 2004

selected group shows

Manifest Creative Research and Drawing Center: Textuality, Cincinnati, OH, 2012
Murray State University: KISS: New Sincerity And New Romanticism in Art, Murray, KY, 2011
Dumbo Arts Festival: 365 Days of Print, Brooklyn, NY, 2011
Guest Spot: Edited States, Baltimore, MD 2011