URBANOUFLAGE, 2018
Signal Boxes, Ren0, NV
The urban environment is filled with distinct visual patterns and textures, side-by-side, overlapping, often changing with the time of day or season. Some of these patterns have practical functions others are purely decorative, some belong to the natural world. Some patterns are meant to stand out and others to recede or mask. Still others are the product of accident. This pluralistic visual language of urban environments, sometimes harmonious, sometimes incongruous, is the inspiration for these two signal boxes, one at the intersection of Liberty St. and Holcomb Ave., and one at Liberty St. and Sinclair St., in Reno, NV.
I used patterns found in the vicinity of each signal box and combine them to create layered abstract surfaces that play in the tension between being seen and blending in (the existential dilemma of all signal boxes!). Because the patterns are taken from the immediate environment I also hope that the paintings encourage people to pay more attention to the details of the surrounding built environment.
