Monthly Archives: September 2015
Conversations and Performance Art: Linda K. Johnson’s The View from Here
In the spring of 1999, over a period of three months, dance artist Linda K. Johnson created a site-specific performance with the urban growth boundary (UGB) program in Portland, Oregon, as its subject. The UGB sets an outer limit on … Continue reading
Suné Woods: Landscape and Memory
Suné Woods’s photographs challenge American preconceptions about whose bodies “belong” in nature and counter the “common sense” notion of rural geography as simply empty space. Woods began her spatial inquiry after a particular self-portrait elicited a strong reaction from her … Continue reading
Amy Balkin: Private Ownership, Public Space, and the Commons
Amy Balkin’s work addresses a fundamentally American question: Who owns the land? She’d once envisioned a desert Eden that would belong to all human beings but quickly discovered that there is no legal construct in the United States for a … Continue reading
Sarah Kanouse: Offering an Alternate Sensory Engagement with Place
In her fascinating work America Ponds, Sarah Kanouse inhabits a unique version of the character of the explorer. This artist’s version of a naturalist is distinct in that one has “a skewed vision of what that world might be, … Continue reading
Cynthia Hooper: The Poetics of Infrastructure
Cynthia Hooper’s passion for infrastructure is palpable. She is a self-described “infrastructure geek.” Trained as a painter, Hooper applies a formal aesthetic approach—emphasizing light and color—to her video work. The project we discussed is a collection of videos about water … Continue reading