A critical investigation conducted by Tony Gonzalez, Eric Neuhaus, and Caleb Speigel.
PRIMER
In his text Precise, Anonymous, and Enigmatic, David Heymann posits that the landscape of Iowa was constructed with a ruthless commitment to pragmatic function of agricultural activity. This observation served as the initial spark of our investigation. The work we would carry out sought to resist the designed function of components on the site, creating room for the projection of a plurality of new subjective meanings.
LATENT AESTHETIC
Regardless of design intent, the final image of the landscape is a decidedly aesthetic one, onto which we project ideas about the culture, and out of which the landscape was produced. Our process of investigation was one of opposites, by inverting the constructive ethic of the farm, we rendered it visible and vulnerable. Elements in space were configured in such a way that their pragmatic function was actively resisted.
PRAGMATIC REVERSAL
Components that were intended for compressive contact were suspended in space. Entities intended for human contact were placed out of reach. Line work passed through the transparent floor. Ultimately, the macabre reversal generates a number of critical conversations about the condition of contemporary agricultural practice.
BODY FRAGMENTED
The final product recalls Jacques Lacan’s Corps Morcelé, by which we come to understand the feeling of disgust, which washes over an individual as they stand before a body fragmented. In presenting fragmentation, the work incites a conversation about the phenomenon of fragmentation and precarious suspension as it occurs within the realm of agriculture.
Work conducted at Black Contemporary with studio critic Peter P. Goché.