a heap
All around the outskirts of the suburbs, there are piles of debris, seemingly pushed in from somewhere. Graveyards of cars and people, graveyards of trash, overgrown vines, delivery boxes, and countless other piles are crowded together, seemingly pushed toward the outskirts. Suburban society feels like the end of the earth. This is because the landscape is a society of piles, swept from the center to the periphery, as if with a sweeping brush. Before I moved in, my current studio was used as a waste storage facility. I remember the piles of waste piled up in the front yard when I first took over the studio. They looked like giant graves. This place's purpose then and now isn't much different. I paint here, and I paint within the piles. The paintings become piles again, and my piles pile up. My paintings stand precariously, on the edge of an ambiguous value that may or may not be waste.
I sketched within the piles for ten days. I looked at the piles and drew lumps, large and small. It didn't matter what they were. I simply wanted their piles and my paintings to be on the same line. After working on each painting outdoors for two to three hours, I returned to the same location a few days later. I then installed the paintings on site and recorded the overlap between the landscape and the painting on video. I don't intend a complete overlap between the original landscape and the painting. The relationship between the two is inherently distinguishable. Nevertheless, I approach the landscape with this recognition. In such a place where balance is lacking, the painting itself becomes a layer within the landscape, and I repeatedly make uneasy attempts to find a balance between the landscape and the painting. The painting becomes another layer within the modeled site, or an object within the landscape, shaking the scene (place). By depicting the landscape, the painting doesn't detach itself from it as a single entity. To paint is to create another layer within the landscape. In this way, the painting must always be related to the actual landscape, and it must also reveal a state of constant unrest. I believe this is an important value in painting.