this is the work this machine does
a site-specific project exploring ideas of agency, chance, and change
HUDSON, NEW YORK
2018 - 2020
this is the work this machine does is a mixed and multimedia site-specific project that explored the capacity of an off-grid studio space in Hudson, New York, to create work that engaged with the changing environmental energies on site.
I looked for local sources of energy, often in the form of environmental cyclic change, to animate the material on and related to the site. Interventions were often minimal, using long-term & low-impact installations to collect data and generate interactions between processes at play and various kinds of material. The mixed media work created sought to give autonomy to matter, and focused on the local alchemy of constant change at any given moment in the site as a source of both energy and material for the project. Supported by the Canada Council for the Arts, the two year exploration was completed in June, 2020 and the site is now closed.
As temporary, periodic, and ephemeral ‘machines’ harnessed wind, sun, rain, gravity, & time through a variety of materials & mediums, four timelapse trail cameras documented the project continuously, from work being made to the interactions between wind & weather and the porous structure of the studio itself. Selected video documentation available here or follow @dfpe for updates.
above: inspired by a natural phenomenon (#herbaglyph), a railroad spike plumbed through the roof to trees above the project space harnesses the energy of windheaved branches, to create a ferraglyph, or iron-carving, in sand.
This project acknowledges the support of the Canada Council for the Arts. Nous remercions le Conseil des arts du Canada de son soutien.
selected works
