deankessmann

Between Here and There

archival pigment prints, 2 15/16 x 4 1/4 inches, 2003-7
edition 3 with 1 AP

archival pigment prints
2 15/16 x 4 1/4 inches
2003-7
edition 3 with 1 AP

Read a short description of this project

Between Here and There

Photographs of various landscapes have recurred in my work from early on in my development as an artist. This series of images focuses on the pavement that makes up many urban environments. There is no foreground or background in these pictures, at least not in a conventional sense, and you will not locate any horizon lines that divide the earth from the sky. Between Here and There is a document that selectively maps the surfaces beneath my feet—a hodgepodge of petroleum-based substances and concrete used to pave cities—that I walk over on my daily commute to and from work in Washington, DC. The majority of the images show marks upon the pavement, primarily spray-painted lines that identify the locations where repairs will be done, and the cracks that are mended together with threads of tar. While I realize that the spray-painted symbols have meaning to the people who apply them to the roads and sidewalks, to me it is a language that I do not care to decipher. My interest is not in decoding and translating their exact meaning, but in revising the language by fragmenting its characters, rearranging the text, and coercing these otherwise straightforward documents to dissolve into abstraction. The intended meaning may have been erased, but the markings are not devoid of significance. Instead, these happened-upon urban collages have been translated into a new visual vernacular.