BUILD-UP
These images were taken of my thesis exhibition, in the Gallery of Visual Arts in Missoula, MT.
I used tent poles, flannel, wool, sleeping bag fill, wire fencing, zippers, and rip stop nylon as evidence of hikers, ranchers and hunters engaging with the natural environment. In combining the materials, I worked to create a sense of natural accumulation similar to tumbleweeds piling up in the fences that line the interstates of the West.
I liken the formation of the work in the entryway to the way that fire builds energy across topographic changes, slowly building across level ground, until it meets a steep canyon and picks up steam and explodes across the ridgeline. My installation expanded after traveling through the transom window, and wrapped around the column in the large gallery in a spiral shape to mimic the movements of wind, smoke and water. Smoke columns will often develop vertically, and then turn in a slow spiral motion. Whirlpools form even in calm waters when two opposing currents meet exemplifying turmoil in the natural environment.
