ARTIST STATEMENT
Growing up poor and being the first in my family to finish high school (much less take a university degree), I was taught to revere education and culture. An incomplete photo illustrated encyclopaedia set was my window into great works of art, and from it I learned to revere the canon of European art history, specifically Eurocentric easel painting. It wasn’t until years later that I learned to question the structures and strictures that shape what we call art.
Failed Panoramas represent an engagement with the canon of art history as well as mobile photographic technology. Each image consists of my own embodied dance with a painting, deliberately mismoving the camera in its panorama function to fold, scramble, and otherwise deface and disfigure precious works of art.
These images are part of a much larger body of work that interrogates the creation and interpretation of photographic images. Drawn from various genres and sources, these represent years of ongoing research into the how and why of photography.
I’m an American artist, educator, and writer/curator. Born in Phoenix, I lived and worked most of my adult life in Chicago. My artwork deals with photography - its languages, objects, histories, and systems. My research deals with photography as it intersects with embodied language and metaphor. Taking myriad forms (including 3D printing, installation, digital systems, and ne printing), my work has been exhibited throughout the USA, Europe, and Asia. I received six artist grants from the City of Chicago, as well as grants from the Illinois Arts Council and the Arizona Commission on the Arts. I recently completed a practice-led PhD at the Royal College of Art, and live and work in London.