Mountain Shadow

Mountain Shadow brings together two bodies of work shaped by two mountains: Kasugayama in Nara, Japan, and The Mountain in Prairie Grove, Arkansas. Across the works a playful optimism emerges.

Earlier works were developed during a residency in Nara. Sustained research and close observation of Kasugayama and the city around it informed both material and compositional decisions. The more recent works emerged after moving to a home on the side of The Mountain, where daily labor, home building, and routine interaction with the surrounding environment continue to shape the practice.

Though geographically distinct, these mountains function as parallel characters representing the people who inhabit these landscapes, their daily routines a density that is contrasted by the vast scale of time that these two geological phenomena embody in their past and in their future. Throughout the exhibition, landscapes are integrated into intimate gestures of care. Small sized collages work to simplify the complexity of the landscapes. A collection of small drawings comment on the minutia of the everyday while a small z-scale train plays out its daily routine.

Mountain Shadow positions optimism and lightness in contrast to the existential weight of an uncertain future. A love letter, appreciating each day that plays out within The Mountain Shadow.