Artist Statement.
Systems of Pain/Networks of Resilience (Santa Fe), (2017), photo by Jane Phillips
I gather multiple forms of understanding—visual, academic, personal, physical, material – together in my work. I attempt to be conscious of my limits, biases and prejudices within the process, while acknowledging the effect that the perceptions of others have on me. I make space for difference. I do this in order to articulate some ways in which all things (yes, literally all things) are conceptually and ecologically connected.
Research guides the work’s final form. It ends up being video, performance, installation, writing, whatever the process demands. I strive to combine the various realities I encounter into as comprehensive an understanding or embodiment of a single “thing” as I can muster. These “things” have included Neutrinos, The Weather, Processes of Recovery, Apologies and Forgiveness. The most urgent connections for me to articulate are between the human and the non-human, the emotional and the material, the descriptive and the enacted/embodied.
Ultimately I see my work as a series of exchanges of meaning. A reflection on relationships.
An acknowledgment both of connection, and the impossibility of true understanding.
INFLUENCES
As someone who has worked with appropriation, citation is very important to me. The following people and their work have had a significant and lasting impact on my practice and way of thinking, both conscious and unconscious. This list is continually updated.
Anna Campbell, Marissa Lee Benedict, Liz Ensz, Lindsey French, Brandon Ballengee, Kate Zeller, Mark Jeffery, Mary Jane Jacob, Claire Bishop, Douglas Pancoast, Trevor Martin, Andrew & Hannah Barco, Ian Garrett, Monty Python, Rebecca Duclos, Jennifer Doyle, SF Sketchfest, Betty Beaumont, Mierle Laderman Ukeles, Amy Franceschini, Claire Pentecost, Laura Caroline Johnson de Lara, Critical Art Ensemble, Forced Entertainment, Lin Hixson & Matthew Goulish, Stuart Sherman, Blast Theory, Pamela Howard, Deke Weaver, Andris Freibergs, Nancy Holt, Robert Smithson, the Harrisons, Margo Zalite.
Robin Deacon deserves special mention as someone whose pedagogy and performance practice have had a profound impact on how I approach my own work.