Outpost

Abstract

Outpost is an installation exploring the tenuous grounds of perception in the remote wilderness environment. Built as a room within the gallery, the interior hut-like space is dim, lit only by points of light found within crevices in the walls, floor, and ceiling of the space. The crevices mysteriously transcend the apparent architecture of the hut, extending deeply through the walls, floor, and ceiling, evoking wonder and fear through an encounter with the sublime. Outside the hut, collections of artifacts and data attempt to describe the experience of remote isolation in nature, marking place, conditions of environment, and qualities of human experience. These remnants and suggestions of the experience stand in contrast to the encounter within the hut, and suggest the impulse to measure the immeasurable – the futile attempt to capture a powerful, visceral, and emotional experience in words and numbers. With an attention to lightness and darkness, this work brings the audience into a more intimate awareness of their own observation and understanding of physical phenomena. Outpost extends the boundaries of our inhabited world, the perceptions we may have of it, and the means by which we make sense of it.