baileykinkel |
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artist's statement
My recent paintings deal with humans’ connection to and relationship with the land and our environments, a relationship which is extremely complex. We are awed by it, we destroy it, we idealize it, we alter it to fit our imagination, we buy and sell it, we use its resources, we create new environments in place of natural ones. We separate ourselves from it, yet we are always connected to it. Instead of adapting to an environment, we adapt the environment to fit our needs. I have attempted to represent how we alter the natural environment through development, commercialization, and expansion by highlighting both the natural and the human-made features within landscapes. These changing landscapes are a product, and in fact a continual process, of both creation and destruction, and I have tried to emphasize both aspects within my paintings. I wish the viewer to question the role they play within their environment, how they affect and are affected by the world around them.
These contemporary landscapes raise issues from suburban sprawl to resource conservation. In viewing various environments I discovered that nearly every stretch of land I encountered was marked by human presence. The human creations and alterations within these landscapes reveal our ability to adapt our environment to fulfill our needs. Various sources inspired my work, including advertisements, plans for housing developments, and snapshots from the roadside. The series of small paintings including Connection, Hydrant, Cul-de-sac, and Sign was inspired by such snapshots. They depict objects that, while seemingly innocuous, are signs of larger development of the land taking place outside of what is shown. Each one is relatable to the size of a photograph, emphasizing its snapshot quality and the image’s origin as a photograph. As a photograph, each picture is easily seen as mundane and overlooked, representing uncontroversial objects seen every day by the viewer. One is so used to seeing objects such as fire hydrants and road signs in daily life as well as in photographs, it is doubtful that one would take the time to question their existence. In isolating these objects within the natural environment and translating them into paintings, I want the viewer to question why such an object would be given attention in a painting and why they exist in the environment shown.
My work is in large part a continuation of the ideas which inspired the Land Art and Environmental Art movements. In response to a new ecological consciousness, these artists examined our complex relationship with the land. They examined how we affect the landscape through alteration and interruption, as well as the power of nature to in turn change their alterations. Dennis Oppenheim, in works such as Negative Board, made marks in the landscape by cutting a path through snow to reveal the dark earth below. In a similar vein, Michael Heizer, in Rift, dug a linear form into the desert ground. However, his work was intended to show the power of nature to reclaim the site as the form gradually disappeared over time. Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty also allowed for the human-made site to be altered by its environment. The work disappears under water and re-emerges over time. The work of Christo and Jeanne-Claude, including Running Fence, Surrounded Islands, and The Umbrellas, questions what is natural and brings attention to how we interrupt the landscape with human-made structures. Unlike most other Land Art artists who used the materials found within the landscape to make their works, Christo and Jeanne-Claude introduced manufactured materials to divide or envelop the natural landscape. Also influential in the formation of my work was Agnes Denes’s depiction of the conflict between rural and urban settings as well as earth-grown and man-made structures in Confrontation: Wheatfield. By growing two acres of wheat in downtown
Most of these artists, in addition to raising awareness of environmental issues, were also rejecting traditional art forms, such as painting, in favor of working within the actual environment. I have chosen to instead show contemporary concerns through a traditional form, as it has the ability to draw viewers into the work before presenting controversial issues. Therefore, while I continue through my paintings the concepts behind their sculptural work, I look to myriad painters for visual inspiration. In Oasis, I looked to the flat and colorful
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