West

Gaudiani in her newest work West continues her exploration of the tensions of place and belonging. She employs a framing device evolved from her earlier works Forty Eight States and Frontier States. Here in West, she frames the passing landscape with hints of curtain, window, and train interior. Each image becomes a theater proscenium, with viewer and photographer in the audience. The curtain is raised on landscapes with long perspectives and the viewer is invited in to the “performance” and distanced from it at the same time. Where do we belong? The train takes on broader meaning. A train is always between destinations, and its passengers are on the inside looking out and passing by. Perhaps in the end we reside many places but belong nowhere.