Mural Cut-Outs: 1997-1998

Mural Cut-Outs: 1997-1998

This series is a consideration of the scenic photograph and the historic garden plan as cultural representations of nature and how these representations can reflect a collective desire to both control and romanticize nature. This body of work uses photo murals of familiar imagery that depicts archetypal views of the landscape that are generic yet still powerful in their evocation of the collective myth of Nature. Cut into these standard majestic landscapes are ground plans from historic gardens selected for their specific references to time and place and obsessive ordering of the natural terrain.

On a formal level the works confound the perception of the image through traditional perspective by presenting the diagrammatic overview simultaneously within the depth of the photographic view. The cut prints are installed to allow the shadow of the cutout design to be cast on the wall and further impose the exterior plan on the viewer’s present space. The title of each piece incorporates the location of both the landscape image and the garden.