INSTALLATIONS
PROVIDENCER
2024. List Art Center, Brown University | For my senior thesis show, I created a gallery-wide installation that doubled as a map of the Providence River. A blue line running across the length of the gallery represented the river as it flows from its tributaries, through downtown Providence, into the Narragansett Bay. The installation was comprised of 16 individual works that were spatially arranged along this axis, reflecting their real-life positions downstream, upstream or on either bank of the river. As shown in the following works, the exhibition explored the mapping of space across various “dimensions,” from 1D to 4D, combining eye-level and aerial views to create multi-perspective maps and incorporating time-based photography techniques.
WATCHEMOK(CALL)ET | wood, art board, clam gauge, quahog shells | As a “one dimensional” map, Watchemok(call)et is a linear sculpture measuring 8ft in length that shows elongated human forms walking in two directions—This effect was achieved by capturing the movement of a walking person while taking a panoramic photo. In the show, I call these forms “time travelers.” Taking its name from the Watchemoket Cove in the Narragansett Bay, the work references the bidirectional flow of traffic along the East Bay Bike Path, which cuts through the cove on a narrow causeway. The materials of the work, clam shells and clam gauges for measuring catch size, allude to the estuary environment.
UTILITY COVER MAP SERIES | photo collage, rubbings, pattern paper | The “second dimension” of the show exists in the realm of the traditional flat map: the web of spatial information created by lines and points on a plane. In this series, comprising the bulk of the work in the exhibit, I use utility covers along the Providence River waterfront as anchor points to build multi-perspective maps of specific sites.
The process of creating these maps all followed the same pattern: First, I selected a group of adjacent utility covers (sometimes only one) and plotted them according to their GPS coordinates on a canvas. Standing on top of each utility cover, I took a rubbing of the cover and a panoramic photo standing on top of it. As I took the panorama, I had human models walk in straight lines towards a local landmark (spire, steeple, or obelisk) along the waterfront and captured their movement in panorama as “time travelers.” These walking paths are plotted in blue. I then overlaid the rubbing and panorama (which I warped into a circle using Photoshop) on top of the GPS coordinates of their source utility cover, preserving the north-south orientation of the panoramas to ensure the overall map’s integrity as a navigation device.
With the plurality of panoramic perspectives is intended to show plurality, the viewer can simultaneously inhabit several slightly different eye-level perspectives at once while still reading the work as a map in its own right. With red string, I connect the center of each utility cover to its own image in panorama (the utility covers are close enough to appear in panoramas taken from their neighbors). Here I seek to restore some sense of the connection between the eye-level view and the navigational map, a relationship that has largely been severed by modern cartography and the coordinate grid.
240 (HISTORIC PROVIDENCE HOME) | wood, photo collage, door plate rubbings | For the work titled 240, I constructed a three-dimensional scale model of my rental apartment, the top two floors of a historic home in the College Hill neighborhood. I removed the north and west walls of the house to expose the interior space.
The process followed a similar method to the utility cover series. At each doorway, I would take a rubbing of the intricate door plate, the part which contains the key hole and door knob. The door plate itself was then mounted on a wooden brace and became a stand-in for the door itself. Then, standing in the exact center of the doorway, I took a panorama. Once again, I converted these panoramas into circles and overlaid them in their corresponding location on the floor plan. The result is a to-scale representation of interior space across two floors that functions as a three-dimensional map.
DUCKS IN A ROW | video, charcoal drawings | The “fourth dimension” was somewhat of a creative liberty, but I tried to create a time-based piece of aquatic life in the Providence River. For this work, I took video footage of Canada geese, ducks and seagulls milling about in the water. I then projected the videos on a wall and traced the movements of these birds over time—individual birds appear in multiple times as they move through the frame. Displayed side by side, the ephemeral quality of the source video contrasts with the enduring marks, overlapping marks left by the charcoal tracings.
