What’s Happening? (2020)
Many schools, colleges, and businesses were forced to reconsider their operations as COVID-19 continues to spread throughout the world. At Principia College this meant closing down campus to all but those who were unable to leave, resulting in hundreds of students scrambling to return home. In an effort to process the sudden shift in environment, I photographed what remained; spacious parking lots, empty hallways, the rapidly-vacated rooms of friends.
After returning home myself, I began utilizing the mailing system as a means of exploring the potential of connection and collaboration across this new distance. Pieces of thin poster board were cut to the size of a postcard, and a reinforcing layer of gesso was applied to each. The reverse side featured my address and a stamp, and each card was taped to the inside of a small box containing various loose art materials such as oil pastels, charcoal, and gloves filled with acrylic paint. After gessoing the box, painting on the address of a classmate, and a vague set of instructions (“stomp”, “rattle”, “bend”), the works were shipped off around the country. Referencing the conceptual paintings of Sol LeWitt’s, in which instructions for the creation of an artwork were sent for a recipient to interpret and execute, the resulting images contain both subtle and bold marks made from the active participation of another, as well as the journey to and from their destination.
These two bodies of work read as a call and response; the uncomfortable absences found in the photographs are remedied by the participatory nature of the mail art.
Many schools, colleges, and businesses were forced to reconsider their operations as COVID-19 continues to spread throughout the world. At Principia College this meant closing down campus to all but those who were unable to leave, resulting in hundreds of students scrambling to return home. In an effort to process the sudden shift in environment, I photographed what remained; spacious parking lots, empty hallways, the rapidly-vacated rooms of friends.
After returning home myself, I began utilizing the mailing system as a means of exploring the potential of connection and collaboration across this new distance. Pieces of thin poster board were cut to the size of a postcard, and a reinforcing layer of gesso was applied to each. The reverse side featured my address and a stamp, and each card was taped to the inside of a small box containing various loose art materials such as oil pastels, charcoal, and gloves filled with acrylic paint. After gessoing the box, painting on the address of a classmate, and a vague set of instructions (“stomp”, “rattle”, “bend”), the works were shipped off around the country. Referencing the conceptual paintings of Sol LeWitt’s, in which instructions for the creation of an artwork were sent for a recipient to interpret and execute, the resulting images contain both subtle and bold marks made from the active participation of another, as well as the journey to and from their destination.
These two bodies of work read as a call and response; the uncomfortable absences found in the photographs are remedied by the participatory nature of the mail art.
