Frame Drag
In physics, “frame dragging” is a term used to describe the distortion of space and time by the gravitational field of a rotating body, pulling space/time alongside it as it spins.
After the birth of my son, Oliver, I found myself tethered to my home in a way that I had never been before. As a result, my attention and practice have changed. Rather than examining the larger spaces of American landscape as I had been, I began to look instead at the place I was spending most of my time, rarely wandering beyond the neighborhood, always pulled back. I made things; Oliver made things; we made things together, pushing and pulling at each other, the objects we were making, and the space in which we found ourselves.
This project is a collection of photographs, drawings, videos, and installations that have come out of the process of us doing things together; and my layering my own ideas back on top of the things he made, while at the same time, he alters the materials on which I am working. In some ways it is collaborative, though it should accurately be seen a desire by both parties to exert a kind of control over the creative process of the other.
Indicative of these ideas is the artist book component of the project, DEER BLIND. On the front cover is a photograph of a “trophy wall” composed of animal photographs from an old calendar that Oliver and I cut out and pinned to the wall. The interior pages show a progression of photographs of Oliver taping over a photograph of a deer, gradually covering the deer up to his antlers, concluding with the taping of the adjacent light switch. The back cover is a second photo of the “trophy wall”, with the addition of an uncut deer photo hung upside down. Like a hunter’s blind, the visual relationship with the deer is obstructed. Blue tape blinds the deer, covering his eyes, while the light switch becomes encased in the up position, ensuring the persistence of the viewer’s ability to see. In conclusion, an u
