Vanishing points:Architectural works
This project was inspired by the social implications of visibility and invisibility. Visually speaking, the vanishing point is a point in which a distant object disappears from view, as it moves beyond the plane of the horizon. The title is a metaphor for the growing divide between social classes in America. Every day, working-class people are being pushed furthering and further away from safety, security and vital resources. Yet, as the struggle of working-class people intensifies on a personal level, it becomes an increasingly distant concern at a national level. Despite those daily struggles being all around us, they eventually become so ubiquitous that they become undetectable. This work is about perceiving and questioning that distance and how it shapes the image of our communities.
What do people envision when they think about Newburgh, NY?
As a result of the city's long history of poverty, corruption, and violence many outsiders view the city as a war zone and in doing so they marginalize the vibrant culture of the city and its diverse residents. Newburgh which has been seen as a city in decline has grown over recent years to include a growing number of local artists and creatives, diverse food traditions hailing from all over the world, and a host of small bussinesses who bring the city to life. As an artist, I feel it's my duty to confront these negative viewpoints and transform the way that the city is seen both by its citizens and its neighbors.
In examining this idea of war and conflict, I came upon the notion of camouflage, which in this case is used in an ironic sense, to speak to the invisibility of the people and communities of Newburgh. By rendering these potentially valuable properties less visible, I hope to highlight the spaces that remain. In this way I aim to use the the aestethic language of camouflage as a method of highlighting and returning some of the cultural value back to the rich architecture of the city, with an emphasis on visually transforming the city's abandoned and condemned structures into a series of art installations that inspire and subvert the expectations of the viewer, initiating a grander conversation about what is possible in Newburgh.
Essentially I used camouflage netting to form three dimensional forms that emanate from the facades of selected buildings. The netting visually softens the presence of the buildings, rendering them into softened (blurred) forms when viewed from a distance.
After Image (Light Haus)
Light Haus is a continued exploration of visibility and its relationship to class and poverty. The result of this thematic investigation is a small pavilion that is camouflaged into the landscape by a reflective Mylar shroud. From a distance, the exact shape and proportions of the structure disappear into the landscape. As the viewer moves around the work, the light and forms of their surroundings bend and fold over the structure, akin to the manner in which poverty bends and alters the reality that we experience. As the day progresses and the position of the sun shifts, the shape of the work shifts in response, alluding to the fluid characteristics of poverty and the varied experiences of it. Once the sun sets, the pavilion emits an afterglow of colored light, this inner illumination highlights the negative space of the sculpture and defines all the openings to the interior.
Interpersonal Pavilions
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