ARTIST STATEMENT

2007
I make drawings as a response to contemporary images of military power and its effects on both military and civilian populations. Overwhelmed by the number of recent media images representing the horrors of war—as well as those that attempt to justify it—my drawings are an attempt to understand the contradictory responses of fear, apprehension, complicity, and misgiving that these current circumstances can evoke.

As someone who has never witnessed combat firsthand, my conception of warfare in general is shaped by media images, which seem to materialize out of thin air with a disturbing regularity and anonymity. Through drawing, I attempt to transform this barrage of images into a more singular and contemplative experience: one that is more evocative of the complex and entrenched system of thought that continually pits “us” against “them.”

Tiny soldiers, meticulously rendered in graphite, march endlessly along vast sheets of white paper, emerging from and disappearing back into the emptiness of an ever-changing frontier. Devastated landscapes hover as though in a vacuum. Anonymous troops patrol invisible and arbitrary borders; a soldier pauses, attempting to assess the location of an unknown and invisible enemy. An alternating rhythm of movement and stasis echoes through the seemingly empty landscape, with troops, prisoners and refugees continuously shifting position.



SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

Minnesota Public Radio feature on War Mediated   [ listen to mp3 ]  [ read transcript ]

Catalog for War Mediated, Minneapolis Institute of Arts  [ download pdf ]

Transcript of critic Patricia Briggs' talk on War Mediated  [ read ]

Catalog essay for 2005-06 Jerome Foundation Fellowship  [read ]