a 4” white oak frame that is friction-fit to a piece of wall-mounted white oak right angle. The opening in the frame points askew towards the wall.
diffuse passage
handmade kozo paper, steel and wooden frame
Nicholas Cladis and I made this piece together in response to phenomena inside of this particular dogtrot style log cabin (which also has resemblance to the southern saddle bag style[1]), both of which are prominent vernacular forms in the southern and eastern united states. Log cabin construction in general is striking to me because of its density and the scale of its framing. In comparison to more contemporary midwestern house forms whose insulated walls are covered with cladding, these logs are visible - you can kind of see how the building holds together, inside and out.
Log cabins are seemingly simple in the way they meet the needs of providing basic shelter, while also iconically loaded as a symbol of the colonial migration of European settlers across this landscape between the 18 and 1900’s.
When we first walked into these two cabins I was struck by their symmetry and the mirroring of the windows. In an otherwise dense, fortified structure, these windows were areas that allowed passage of vision, light and air. With Nicholas and the paper form we were able to explore drawing attention to this moment of passage, exaggerating the volume of space between these permeable moments of the building, responding to the movement of visitors inside, as well as the winds of our contemporary surroundings.
[1] Beard, D.C. “Shelters Shacks and Shanties,” with illustrations by the author, New York: Scribner 1914
Iowa Art Field : https://www.publicspaceone.com/iowaartfield
Nicholas Cladis : https://www.nicholascladis.com/
The following images are documentation of a site specific installation for the exhibition, All that Glows in the Dark of Democracy, curated by Kasia Houlihan at Weinberg/Newton Gallery in partnership with the ACLU of Illinois.
Scroll on for the curator’s statement and a wall text that accompanied the piece in the space.
All photographs credited to Evan Jenkins
47x47x47
MDF, primer
The figure of Victorine Meurent is extracted from Manet’s Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe.
16x24x40
steam bent white oak
material: pine veneer
photo credit: Robert Chase Heishman
14x13x6
steel
The Prairie Box sculpture, takes its inspiration from the American Foursquare home, a popular architectural style from the early 1900’s. The American Foursquare was commonly sold as a ‘kit house.’ It could be purchased through a catalog, delivered across long distances by railway, and built by the homeowners themselves. The popular Midwestern vernacular style was recognized as one of the most affordable homes of its time, and was colloquially referred to as the ‘prairie box.’
This iteration of the Prairie Box was commissioned by the Iowa City Downtown District with the expressed desire for a structure that would provide seating and shade for visitors to the Blackhawk Mini Park. In early stages of research, I became interested in the history of the site and the hybrid dynamics of the porch - both a public and a private space. In response to a ‘place making’ prompt, I was interested in creating an environment that would challenge notions of what it might mean to make oneself at home in public. This line of thinking led me to modify the traditional form so that every face of the wireframe house presented an entrance with a delineated porch and swing which the public was invited to occupy at any time of day.
14x12x12
hammered aluminum, plastidip, copper wire
11x11
plaster and clay in a basswood frame
Made with an interest in Daphne's story of transformation.
made with laminated cork and leather, one lime from 2014 and one lime from the present, resting on a sculpture of a table
24x24x72
painted wood sculpture in front of printed image of the woods in Chesterhill, Ohio (formerly the 8550 residency)
site specific installation for Fourth Ward Project Space
11'x3'x7'
steel
Meeting Space was made in collaboration with Heather Mullins for the Southside Hub of Production in Chicago, IL
materials: new and reclaimed pine, casters
read more about the Southside Hub of Production in the Chicago’s Newcity
Lobby was a sculpture made in collaboration with Katherine Harvath for Szalon, curated by Monika Szewczyk and Katherine Harvath at the Logan Center for the Arts.
The title, Lobby, was a word chosen for its dual use in naming an architectural space, as well as a persuasive social body in the realm of politics. The interest in this title came along as the sculpture was developing and we considered the form along with practices of curation and viewership that were playing out in the salon style hanging of the exhibition:
Taking equal inspiration from the heterogeneous spaces of the studio and the salon, Szalon (pronounced sha-lon) makes room for an idiomatic place where the practice of showing and telling can flourish. Here, art is lived with and worked on, amidst (and sometimes as) conversation, storytelling, wordplay, rehearsal, research, exercises of judgment, and causes for debate. (Szalon, eflux)
At the outset, this sculpture was created to facilitate extended conversation and host audiences for events that were programmed over the course of the exhibition, including: Ottobong Nkanga, Derrick Adams, Postcommodity, Liam Gillick, David Reed and Jessica Stockholder.
Visit the following archived announcement for more words from the curators and a list of participating artists: https://www.e-flux.com/announcements/30618/szalon/
materials: birch plywood, cushion, polyester fabric
Televisionism was an exhibition curated by Monika Szewczyk, that included works by myself, Faheem Majeed, Catherine Sullivan and Stan Douglas. The sculpture acted as a television set, hosted a series of conversations and recorded episodes that were programmed by Szewczyk over the course of the exhibition in 2012.
“In developing this highly constructed tele-visual environment, there is a sense that conversation has the potential to be shaped and practiced as a form of art. Furthermore, this recording endeavor highlights the vital, if often overlooked, role of oral traditions in shaping vision and culture.” (Szewczyk)
TELEVISIONISM GUESTS INCLUDE: Naomi Beckwith, Zachary R. Cahill, Arnold Davidson, Dana DeGiulio, Hannah Givler, Michelle Grabner, Adam Green, Emily Hooper Lansana, George E. Lewis, Haki R. Madhubuti, Faheem Majeed, Natalie Moore, John Preus, Heather Mullins, Megha Ralapati, David Schutter, Catherine Sullivan, and Hamza Walker, among others.
I designed and built the Sculpture for Televisionism while working in the Logan Shop and was assisted in the build by students in the UChicago Department of Visual Arts. The wallpaper backdropping the conversations was created by artist, Faheem Majeed, and references a print by Dr. Margaret Burroughs.
The light was designed in collaboration with filmmaker, Mike Gibisser.
materials: fir dimensional lumber, plywood, theatrical scrim, diffusion and light
Photo credits: Mike Gibisser
Read more about this exhibition and the participating artists and episodes in the archive:
