Projects: 2007-2011 > There Is No Place

View #1
silverpoint and gouache on prepared paper
42" x 58"
2009
View #2
silverpoint and gouache on prepared paper
54" x 42"
2009
View #3
silverpoint and gouache on prepared paper
54" x 42"
2009
View #4
silverpoint and gouache on prepared paper
42" x 58"
2009
Figure with Desert Landscape
silverpoint and gouache on prepared paper
17" x 14"
2009
Figure with Barrel Cactus
silverpoint and gouache on prepared paper
11" x 11"
2009
Rocks
silverpoint on prepared paper
8.5" x 8.5"
2009
Prickly Pear
silverpoint on prepared paper
15" x 12"
2009
Disappearing Saguaro
silverpoint on prepared paper
14" x 8.5"
2009
Little Cacti
silverpoint on prepared paper
7.5" x 7.5"
2009
Potted Cactus
silverpoint on prepared paper
16" x 12"
2009
Headless Sweater (Design)
brown pen and color pencil on trace paper
11" x 14"
2009
Headless Sweater - Knitting Schematics 1
brown and orange pen on trace paper
11" x 14"
2009
Headless Sweater - Knitting Schematics 2
brown and black pen on trace paper
11" x 14"
2009

2009

There Is No Place is an investigation into the construction of memory, the idealization of place, and the experience of nostalgia and longing. This body of work reenacts my complex relationship to the iconic desert of my Arizona birthplace. A hand-knit, blue-green sweater, constructed to be worn within the desert environment, accentuates the separation between figure and landscape. While this garment retains the natural association of protection and warmth, it has been designed without a head opening, making it simultaneously absurd and obstructive. Worn within or outside of this landscape, the sweater forcibly impedes and blinds my perception of place, standing in as a rupture between actual experience and memory of experience. The desert, and my relationship to it, is revealed as ambiguous, distanced, and idealized, exposing both the limitations and generative possibilities of memory.