We would come to the edge

Abstract

Abstract: This small collection centers on ideas of dislocation and place. With a sharp awareness of the Midwest, its gory history and oppressive weather, many of these pieces delve into these obsessions through a speaker who is both a guest struggling to come to terms with landscape, and a native accustomed to these things. We then experience a transition where the work turns away from the windows, looking at the politics of place when place is the living room, the dinner table. We leave the Midwest to enter Europe where the examination of war, beauty, and bloody landscape continues. Through references to iconic art, holocaust imagery, and the fumblings of a tourist, we witness the minutia of dislocation, the haunting confusion that comes with a strange place. We are then left with our final location: The American West. The final frontier in many senses of the phrase, this is amplified when viewed throught the eyes of a child. All of these works grapple with place--the smothering humidity of Kansas, the staggering Eastern Block, childhood, death. In addition to a sense of disorientation, this small collection aims to reveal what we reach for when we reach for familiarity.