ARTIST STATEMENT: We live in an age of unprecedented human agency in terms of our ability to shape our surroundings, to produce tools to support our needs and desires, and to communicate with each other across vast distances. In August of 2016, the International Commission on Stratigraphy submitted a formal recommendation to designate ours as a new geological epoch - the Anthropocene. Drawing on the tradition of landscape painting and the sublime, I work towards a new kind of landscape for this new epoch.
These landscapes are complex and intricate, blurring the boundary between the organic and the mechanical, the hand and the machine. The overall composition one perceives at first glance gives way to increasing layers of overwhelming detail upon closer examination. I use contemporary digital fabrication tools such as the laser cutter and CNC router to extend traditional weaving, painting, and drafting techniques, pushing their accuracy and detail to the limit of human perception. Looking at these pieces, there is a sense that there are yet more layers, more beyond the frame, a vast and complex network that we cannot see or understand. They are obsessive, betraying a sense of anxiety at the vastness and complexity of the problems we face in this world, at the darker side of the technological sublime.
Holding On 2016 stained wood and steel wire 24" x 24" x 4"
Rising Gyre 2016 stained wood, mdf, and steel wire 32" x 32" x 6"
Rising Gyre (detail) 2016 stained wood, mdf, and steel wire 32" x 32" x 6"
Maelstrom 2016 stained wood, mdf, and acrylic 30" x 30" x 12"
Maelstrom (detail) 2016 stained wood, mdf, and acrylic 30" x 30" x 12"
Gyre (detail) 2016 wood and steel wire 24" x 24" x 4"
Twist 2016 stained wood 24" x 24" x 4"
Twist (detail) 2016 stained wood 24" x 24" x 4"
Threaded Trajectory 2015 corrugated cardboard, jute thread, and ink 60" x 60" x 24" Threaded Trajectory addresses sprawl and connections between communities. Installed in trailer by Jay MacDonald at the Knockdown Center.
Threaded Trajectory (detail) 2015 corrugated cardboard, jute thread, and ink 60" x 60" x 24" Threaded Trajectory addresses sprawl and connections between communities. Installed in trailer by Jay MacDonald at the Knockdown Center.
Explosion Calculus in Red 2014 acrylic on board 36" x 60"
Trains of Progress 2014 acrylic on board 36" x 60"
Elevator Mountain 2012 ink & graphite on vellum “Elevator Mountain” depicts antique, oil-driven, pulley-type elevators, piled up so heavily that they become the mountains rather than providing transport to the tops of external mountains
One Million Drills 2013 ink on watercolor paper Hydraulic fracturing has been in use for over 50 years, and there are over one million drill sites in the United States. This landscape consists entirely of drills, pipes, and valves such as are used
Mechanical Whirlpool 2013 acrylic ink & color pencil on mylar Mechanical Whirlpool is about the history of seafaring technology, from masted merchant boats to battle ships to nuclear submarines. Looking back on this legacy as a single mechanical composition, we
Waterfall Cycle 2012 ink and graphite on paper 24" x 18"
Water Circuit 2012 ink & graphite on vellum Part machine, part city, water lies at the heart of this circuit. It is pumped through a hydroelectric dam through capillary action, circulated through residences, recycled at a wastewater treatment p
Crane Mountain 2012 ink & color pencil on vellum This landscape consists of cranes and more cranes, lifting each other higher and higher.
Spring 2012 ink & graphite on vellum “Spring” depicts a field of what appears from above ground to be a normal field of crocuses. Below ground, the hinged roots extend and contract via a system of motors and gears, pushing nu
Spherical Plant Vessel 2012 ink & graphite on vellum “Spherical Plant Machine” depicts a sooty, sprawling machine entirely dedicated to keeping a small plant alive in a vacuum. Nitrogen and phosphorus are produced as fertilizer, mixed with c