THE UNBEARABLE ABSENCE OF LANDSCAPES
As our access to an unadulterated landscape disappears through urban sprawl, billboard-splattered interstates, and energy-industry land use, our collective engagement with the outdoors dwindles as we choose a climate-controlled path in front of illuminated screens. Inability to experience any uncorrupted landscape is further complicated for city-dwellers who lack the mobility to escape the steel, glass, and concrete trappings of urban life due to economic obstacles.
I manufacture landscapes using the time-based practices of sewing and knitting. I use these methodologies to generate conversation about actual vs. fabricated experiences. I seek significance in the ritualistic behaviors involved in these handicrafts, and enjoy defying the expectations of the materials used for making.
Influenced by the environments of science fiction tales like All Summer in a Day, The Lorax, Wall-E, Battlestar Galactica, and Minority Report, my ideas gravitate towards a dystopian future in which there is limited or no engagement with the landscape because we have destroyed it.
This was a community based project of 108|Contemporary in Tulsa and involved 350+ volunteer knitters and seamers.
KNITTERS
9000 HOURS
More than 350 knitters contributed work for this installation. Some knitters worked independently, however, the knitting circle proved a critical component to the success of this collaboration.
I attended 110 knitting circles between FEB and AUG 2015. As a fairly fast knitter, working 40 hours/week, it would have taken me 4.5 years to complete the amount of knitting necessary to make this manufactured landscape.
SEAMERS
1000 HOURS
45 people volunteered to help with the seaming process between SEP and NOV 2015. The surface is made of 15 panels which were seamed together using thousands of knitted squares and rectangles measuring 8" wide created by the knitters.
The Knitters Reception, NOV21.2015