Spacial Awareness
ARTIST STATEMENT
Lance Kriesch
This body of work focuses solely on Alum Creek and the area immediately around campus. Central to my creative process is truly enjoying the present, being connected to where I am in the moment. My appreciation for immediate environments began after I was introduced to traveling during my last three years of college. I have been blessed to encounter some incredible places—Lake Malawi, Victoria Falls, The Great Wall of China, etc. People often say they envy me because of such travels, and how much they want to leave Ohio. They complain about how flat, how ugly, and how boring it is. I now see though that they are missing the point. Perhaps, ironically, travel has made me realize the value and beauty of places closest to home. From 2018 to 2020, I sought to highlight the near and familiar, hoping to use my camera to make the immediate environment visible to others. Loving and living and enjoying where one lives makes both travel, and being home, equally rewarding and exciting.
At first, I began taking photographs of simple, pretty landscapes—calendar pictures, if you will. I captured beautiful sunsets, intriguing wildlife, and the like. However, something was missing. I needed more content and so I set afoot to look closer. I began realizing how mistreated our land is, how trash-filled and litter-ridden our forests and waterways are. I began expanding my depictions of beautiful Ohio landscapes, so they would include the litter that has become so prevalent. All of the photographs show places exactly how I found them. I also began to expand my process. After each shot, I collected the trash and have also included it in this exhibition. Removing it from the woods, where it disrupts habitats and organisms, seemed like the right thing to do, but I still did not feel right sending it to a landfill. Instead, I wanted to use it, to repurpose it, to give back to nature in some way. I wanted to take this garbage that was choking the environment and turn it into art that accents and serves the environment. Thus, all of the frames and the edition of books seen in this show are made from collected trash in the woods. This exhibition also is interactive. I wholeheartedly invite you to take any trash you see in FilledLand and make it serve and highlight nature in your own way.
