Poetics of Eutopia (2008)
This installation explores ideas of meeting, connection, and the sublime wonder of nature. A Eutopia is a perfect but real place, as opposed to utopia, an imagined one. Through sound compositions, panoramic landscape photographs, and an intensive gallery guide focused on mapping the locations I visited to make the photographs and sound recordings, Poetics of Eutopia explores what defines a sense of place and community, and how it can be recorded and shared through multifaceted means. The work was installed in the Pinkard Gallery at Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, Maryland.
Sound, panoramic photographs, inked acrylic panels, poetry, curated library selection, and printed gallery guide. Dimensions variable
Since ancient times, communities have designated special locations as venues for discussion and negotiation of important matters relating to life within a community. What defines the ideal for such a place? A Eutopia legitimizes and supports cultural developments through placemaking. The installation elements present the geography, sites and sounds of Papua New Guinea, making Eutopic connections between the awe I experienced while surrounded by the sublimity and wonder of nature.
Images are paired with sound pieces blending local language, poetry, and wildlife
While in Papua New Guinea I had a daily practice of making panoramic photographs, they are a visual diary and effort to understand the depths of the experience and context of my surroundings.
Sound compositions - click to listen
Installation entrance
The layout of Poetics of Eutopia is a response to the structure of the space. I integrated the Decker Library's frosted glass window wall into the artwork. Pink light fills the space creating a glow that permeated the gallery and drew viewers in.
Panoramic landscape photographs with corresponding sound pieces from each location lined the gallery wall, tinged pink from the lights used to illuminate the poetry excerpts.
The gridded windows hold four inked acrylic panels, each with excerpts from poetry and an engraved representation of waveforms when the piece is spoken aloud.
Detail of one of the panels
Installation view showing the work and a specially curated selection of books at the adjacent Decker Library, with titles that compliment the themes of the exhibition
Books in the collection range in topic from Papua New Guinea to bird songs, the human body and more.
This exhibition included a gallery guide
That mapped the physical locations of the photographs, as well as the themes, wildlife, and sounds that fill the gallery space.
