Surfaces / Improvisations

In this recent body of digital photographs, I explored the weathered surfaces of an ongoing outdoor installation made of strips of wallpaper, fabrics, large-scale photographs, shredded  paper and other materials that I arrange and leave outside to weather, sometimes for several years. I compose these elements along with household or other banal objects, such as rusting paints cans, curving garden hoses and broken light fixtures. The objects press against the surfaces and at times discolor them with accumulated detritus, rust or rot but at other times they protect them from being bleached out by the sun or from being washed away. I sometimes harvest and exhibit the deteriorating objects and prints in indoor installations, but more often they are the subjects of my photographs with the improvisations and changes documented. The final stage of this work was completed during the pandemic-- I was isolated in my studio and the world felt bleak. The images seemed to take on the character of the times.