All good things to those who wait...
I used to spend a great deal of time at the intersection of fear and art-making. My fear had nothing to do with making “bad” art, which is perhaps what is assumed artists fear the most. I was afraid of making art that was good yet overdone, limited, and uninspired. Whenever my work seemed to be doing this, I would often stop making art altogether.
Writing instructions began as a motivational tactic. Over time, they became integral to the evolution of my work – forcing me to value process over product, experimentation over rules, creation over analysis. Each text piece in this series is an instruction I wrote for myself: "Construct a landscape", "Intrude", "Tell unfinished stories". Each image is my interpretation and execution of those instructions.
During installation, I wrote a final instruction for the audience to better communicate this ritual. The piece titled "Place a photograph here" is a large mirror etched with the metering markings of a camera's viewfinder - encouraging viewers to take pictures of the mirror from any angle, thus placing their perspective on the gallery wall. This piece is ever-changing, so the project as a whole - much like the ritual itself - remains in a permanent state of development.
Construct a landscape
Intrude
Escape a prison of existing formulas
Communicate concisely
Sit in the dark until someone enters and turns on the lights
Take it too far
Tell unfinished stories
(finished stories are boring and forgettable)
Print one of your better images and throw it on the floor
Shoot 1000. Choose 3.
Place a photograph here
