Robert F. Senior Portfolio: Artist: Joshua Dudely Greer

I think Joshua Dudely Greer's work "American Histories" is kind of an interesting project that tackles some of the same concerns that I'm trying to address in my own work. The idea that the events of the past permeate the landscape and influence our understanding of place in the present really fascinates me. In a way that is what is driving my work. I want to go to these places where history has recorded certain events and bring to light the evidence of what those events mean, or what they have left behind. In many cases the events of the past have lead directly to acts of re-creation in the present. We know the landscape had certain features and so in order to preserve the history of the place we take direct action to maintain or embellish those features. With his work he freely admits to using the "language" of cinema to create his own landscapes of events. In my mind the two methods don't really mesh as well as I would like. In places I feel like I know that the fabrication exists and so it makes me look for it to show through in all the images.