Terrain Biennial Newburgh 2021

 I just installed my piece for Terrain Biennial Newburgh, at 201 Montgomery St. In photos it resembles an awkwardly drawn jumble of objects, what I envisioned in my brain when I first overheard the expression ‘mental furniture’.

Words furnishing my mind these 18 months (and counting) include distance, waiting, levels, up and down, forward and backward, rising and falling. In a loose sense I see shapes like stairs and chairs as ways to describe how we are weathering these highs and lows. My piece attempts a visual ‘tempered euphoria’, a phrase I heard on the radio early this year referencing our cautious optimism as we hoped to come together again and be stronger for it. So much is still flawed or broken. We find bits of joy and color as we go, so we can hold onto them and each other when the bottom falls out, trying to maintain our physical space and our connection at the same time.

Appreciation to Terrain Biennial Newburgh for making this project happen here, and to all the local organizations who support it. And to Jon Reichert for helping secure my jumble of objects and creating verticality in a way I could not achieve alone.