Portals
2016
A recurring theme in my work is taking the point of view of some future explorer or inspired by the photographs and low-resolution images sent back to Earth from space probes to other planets, asteroids, and comets, as well as those from the surface of the Moon, the American West, and Earth’s polar regions. The circular frame, meant to resemble a porthole of a ship, is the only window between the explorer and the darkness of the unknown.
Back here on Earth, these ephemeral constructions are all created with pieces of household aluminum foil in suburban New Jersey. The material is in a constant state of flux as the reflectance changes in response to even the slightest air movement. That reflectance allows essentially flat pieces of foil to form an imagined landscape with depth and atmosphere, and the photograph becomes the only record of these fleeting views through a portal into other worlds.