Seismograph

Medium: Photo-intaglio print
Date: 2020
Dimensions: 8″ x 10″

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Abigail Coleman

Statement:
My artistic interests in material, texture, landscape, and color derive from the dichotomous nature of my childhood. That is, residing in Mid-City New Orleans while spending summers in rural Arkansas. These two backgrounds, or settings, left me without a sense of belonging to either place, having neither the seasoning of a city dweller nor the grit of true country folk. This lack of concrete origin has led me to consider how an earthly setting, like the landscape of childhood, affects our understandings of self and the realms around us.

My work is an investigation of how we identify and interact with landscape. Landscapes have the potential to absorb aspects of the lives, works, and peoples that reside within them, just as residents absorb fragments of that terra, enveloping them within their psyches and senses of self. This reciprocity lends itself to an interwoven sense of personhood and place. Conversely, the cartographic representation of such settings morally distances us from the places they represent. This distance enables a sense of indifference to that context, having been removed from the life that takes place there. While landscapes and representations thereof generally inspire revery or are intended to push a perspective or agenda. Juxtaposing these two types of world view creates a field of ambiguity and shifting perspective that can obliterate one’s predetermined associations with either.