Fences 2012 - 2015
In feature length documentaries by James Benning a subject is used as a measuring device for time, in one specific case, Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty. The earthwork is subject to the environment’s climate shifts, yearly weather patterns and varying water levels. The Jetty becomes a device in observing changes over time. Certain fences and the surrounding environment that I have chosen to photograph can be understood as measurement devices. They are in a constant state of flux.
When considering the idea of fragile and fleeting surroundings as described by the Buddhist notion of impermanence, fences become instruments for observing change. What becomes apparent is that some of the most ordinary of materials permeate the environment, are being used or appear to be the reason for the fence. Psychologically, it is interesting to survey the choices being made, the activity taking place and how the environment as a whole will change over time.
Collages 2013
When I came upon the fence on E. Victoria Avenue in San Bernardino, I saw it as a collage. Not a collage of doors but of material in general. When cropping out a single door from the original photograph to create my own collages I wanted to assemble one by hand and one digitally, thinking about where digital space and physical space begin, end or meet.
Consumed by the precautions and great lengths we take in the physical world to protect ourselves and our property, we are increasingly doing the same within the expanding digital world where we are now living out a part of our lives but it is perhaps no more safe or permanent. Inescapably, both worlds are a spiral of fluctuation and uncertainty.