Latent Landscape
I set a task to take a new look at south Louisiana landscape. The spaces most powerful were leftover, abandoned and forbidden industrial places, including an old lock, stretches of the levee along the Mississippi River, highway underpasses and chemical, energy and sugar cane processing plants. Working from observational sketches and using local materials such as river mud and plant fibers for papermaking, I made prints on handmade paper, books, and video that bring this latent landscape into view. Images and surfaces become primitive, disorienting, psychological, dark and changing landscapes.
Installed as part of Latent Landscape were poured paper pulp casts of the Mississippi River levee near the lock in Plaquemine, Louisiana. They were created with locally sourced bagasse (sugar cane) and linen rag fibers, and the paper casts re-engage the altered landscape and waterway. After pouring and drying over several days, a desiccated version of the pour is peeled back from the concrete slope. The resulting casts are installed to echo the levee's slope, and the bottom edges of paper drape on the floor, giving one a sense of a space below and above. When light travels through this sheet, all of the ripples, holes and tears of its varied density become alive, glowing with life. Near the bottom, ripped from the levee, are grasses, dirt, stones and tar that the paper cast removed from the site.
Exhibited at:
Glassell Gallery, Baton Rouge LA
Ogden Museum of Southern Art, New Orleans, LA
Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
Boston Printmakers North American Print Biennial, Juried by Jim Dine, Danforth Museum, Framingham, MA
Louisiana State Museum, Baton Rouge, LA
Jonathan Ferrara Gallery, New Orleans, LA
Estampa International Print Fair, Madrid, Spain
Pounds of Pressure: Contemporary Prints in Large Format, Arts Council of Greater Baton Rouge, Baton Rouge, LA