Weatherly Sawyer

Juror's Distinction

← Return to From Afar: 2020 Senior Art Exhibition

 

 

Our world can be touched but not claimed. The tension between humanity’s constant push for permanence amidst the instability of the natural world results in the existence of communities which are simultaneously unique and placeless. My art spawns from investigations into how communities use non-place practices in order to adapt to their unique and inevitably resistant environments.

Most built communities are driven to possess popular social and physical amenities; they assimilate themselves within a network of global cultures, thus allowing them to maintain a facade which parallels any other community. The local members could congregate in church every Sunday, wear name brand clothing, and own fashionable townhomes. However, our perceptions of a community change if the church is inaccessible due to snowfall during the winters, if the clothing has to be delivered monthly by a cargo plane, or if the townhome borders miles of desert. Mankind attempts to adapt to landscapes over which we have no control, and although homogeneity between civilizations is more possible now than ever before due to consumerism and the internet, this homogeneity exists only in microcosms—lies of civilization in the context of the surrounding environment.

Throughout my work, I employ a combination of painting, collage, print, and sculpture to design or recreate landscapes, maps, and communities. I am interested in the ways in which various communities function and support the complexities of human life within their designated landscapes. I want my work to invite the viewer to question the reality, functionality, or explorability of the places I create.

 

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