Matthew Conboy, Future Holdings 5,2016. Photograph.
Future Holdings documents the abandoned construction site for what would have been the tallest building in the world (Sky City) in Changsha, China. After a few short weeks of building activity in 2015, government authorities halted all construction and local residents eventually allowed the foundation to fill with water and become a fishing pond. Located on the northern edge of Changsha, Sky City would have been the first structure visitors would come across as they traveled along the Xiangjiang River. Today, though, the only elements that tower over this habitat are the construction cranes that fill the horizon. I first photographed this site in 2016 and have returned each year since. Each time, I was struck by the calm and quietness that enveloped this landscape despite the fact that with more than 7 million residents, Changsha would rank as the second largest city in the United States. My goal with Future Holdings is to investigate political, economic, social, and cultural aspects of our contemporary lives through issues of hubris, the relationship between humans and nature, and the evolution of cities like Changsha.
Aaron Wilder, The Presidio 11, Photograph, Click image to view in slide show.
Aaron Wilder, The Presidio 9, Photograph.
Aaron Wilder, Lands End 2, Photograph.
Aaron Wilder, Golden Gate Park 5, Photograph.
Aaron Wilder, Golden Gate Park 1, Photograph
Green Matter / Gray Space is a play on words from the terms “green space” (an area of grass, trees, or other vegetation set apart for recreational or aesthetic purposes in an otherwise urban environment) and “gray matter” (the darker tissue of the brain and spinal cord, consisting mainly of nerve cell bodies and branching dendrites). The increasing population growth in cities calls into question (or enters into a gray area) the future of green space. When every area of a city is constructed for housing and other buildings, the area of green space per capita shrinks. If the vegetation that has, over time, been ripped out to make space for more human activity can be thought of as the gray matter of the ecosystem, what is it that we are doing to the intelligence of our planet’s environment? With climate change, our insatiable waste, and minimization of plant life, how will our health as city dwellers be impacted by the diminishing environment we rely upon for water, air, and food?
Broken Models. Photograph. Click on image to view in slide show.
Broken Models. Photograph.
Broken Models. Photograph.
Broken Models. Photograph.
Broken Models. Photograph.
Rachel Poliquin, in her 2012 book The Breathless Zoo, writes that “Taxidermy is deeply marked by human longing,” revealing our hopes and dreams about our place in the natural world. Natural history dioramas present a carefully constructed, perfectly encapsulated and controlled experience of nature, revealing as much about humanity as the nature depicted. In Broken Models, Steensma Hoag negotiates access to dioramas in various stages of being decommissioned and uses these fictional spaces to create imaginary scenes. By introducing a worker wearing a white Hazmat suit, which evokes images of advanced technology labs in which the environment needs to be protected from the worker, the series suggests a scientific method of understanding and quantifying our experience of nature and comments on our failed construction of the environment as an inexhaustible resource.
This series features small, improvisational, origami-like collage forms created from manipulated pieces of encaustic-infused rice and tissue papers. The series began with the otherwise practical intention of reusing scrap materials but has evolved into something more meaningful and representative of an interest in science, nature, memory, and narratives of ecosystems in flux. These abstract compositions are the result of an exploration of how encaustic-infused paper can be manipulated through layering, cutting, folding and the use of heated tools. My goal is for these non-representational compositions to reflect a suspended state of evolution as one form shifts to become another.
Uxo, Laos. Mixed media. Click image to view in slideshow.
Rubble. Mixed media.
Hunter Impact. Mixed media.
Ho Chi Minh Trail. Mixed media.
Aftermath. Mixed media.
This body of work is inspired by the non-profit organization, Legacies of War, and their mission: “To raise awareness about the history of the Vietnam War-era bombing in Laos and advocate for the clearance of unexploded bombs.” As a refugee/immigrant, the process of connecting and disconnecting with a place or community are abstracted ideas of migration. Similarly, the collage and painting process is unpredictable and is an ongoing dialogue about assimilating and relocating into another culture and space.
Untitled, Photograph, Click image to view in slide show.
Untitled, Photograph
Untitled, Photograph
Untitled, Photograph
Untitled, Photograph
The Production Landscape series profiles the path of the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) in North Dakota, one of the four states it crosses. For people like me who grew up in suburbia, massive infrastructure projects such as the Dakota Access Pipeline are abstractions. I benefit from the resources they transport, but the costs of such delivery systems are born by others in far away “fly over” places. Beginning in Fall 2016 I followed the pipeline route in North Dakota and photographed the landscapes it traversed. I wanted to see what construction looked like from the ground and view the range and agricultural landscapes reshaped by its insertion. The project does not attempt a comprehensive documentation of the pipeline route or the Bakken-producing region from which the oil is generated, but rather seeks to add context to an important public discussion about natural resource usage. The images highlight the physical disruption of the land’s surface and show the rural areas impacted by its construction. In doing so, the series explores the ways in which landscape photography contextualized current debates related to land-use and natural resource extraction.
This project investigates the unseen communication that occurs between the natural and built environments. Using mixed media, Nan Xu transforms nature into a magical-realist world that combines rocks and clouds with feelings and emotions to capture the space between the seen and unseen worlds. In these mystical landscapes, Nan Xu describes texture, space, and light to convey both rational and romantic feelings about the fate of the environment and humanity.
Oath of the Wishbone; Print; Click image to view in slide show.
Hummingweed; Print
Wishfish; Print
Turning Practice Into Knowing; Print
Innateness-Hypothesis; Print
Emblems of dissent
Rousing new forms of resistance
Rejecting submission to mainstream belief
Referencing societal agreements
Revising the paradigm
Cultural Alarm
Considering the nature & context of truth
Constructing an argument for involvement
Questioning motivations & intentions
Commenting on the state of affairs
Dynamic Humility
Scouting language for this moment
Solemnizing diversity
Searching for equilibrium
Selecting the idiosyncratic
Salivating over the funky
Surface Stress. Structure Strain: Mysteries of Baltimore III. Oil on paper, 22 by 30 inches. Click image to view in slide show.
Surface Stress. Structure Strain. Nagasaki Cats Council. Oil on paper, 22 by 30 inches.
Surface Stress. Structure Strain. Dr. Ranpos’ Startling Menagerie. Oil on paper, 22 by 30 inches.
Surface Stress. Structure Strain. Baltimore Ruins VI Skyline. Oil on canvas, 24 by 30 inches.
Surface Stress. Structure Strain. Baltimore Ruins XI. Oil on canvas, 48 by 60 inches.
These paintings, which attempt to describe the complexity of structures, serve as psychological portraits of the people of Baltimore, Maryland, and Nagasaki, Japan. Boarded up doors and windows trap the dark secrets of these poor dwellings. Degraded humans and distraught ghosts wander through these dark places. Inferences to the human psyche are enmeshed in each gash, hole, and sloppy patch.
