Statement My art-making in the past had been focusing on interpreting and re-contextualizing the formal qualities found in certain languages and various forms of communication, overlapping their structures and inherent meaning into a new form of critique, all the while attempting to reconsider our understanding of how we use and manipulate the infinite amount of information at our disposal. In the former work, a density surfaced, creating an overwhelming sense of static and noise, and I realized that I had taken the project as far as I wanted to take it at the time, and signaled an affirmation that I should begin to look more inward, or outward for that matter, with regards to what I had discovered. Which led me to my neighborhood. I have lived in East Oakland for over 14 years, in one of the so-called worst areas, and finally began to really consider my surroundings for the first time. Itís the industrial part of the city, mostly populated by lower class Latino and African Americans. Gentrification has slowly been surfacing in various sections surrounding my outlining neighborhood, but its essentially like dropping rose pedals in a tar pit. The very qualities that made this part of the city so appealing some 30 years ago have completely evaporated, and whatís left is what the rest of the Bay Area sees with eyes wide shut. In this current work, I am attempting to investigate what has essentially become a wasteland, while integrating the formal concerns of my previous work, most notably issues concerning the static qualities of observation and identification. Telephone poles replacing trees, abandoned autos, pillaged buildings, and the hopeful blur of a visiting carnival all interact in relative cohesion and disparity, however abstract. Within this visual context, is the hope that a new consideration, or at the very least a small confirmation, will arise for the viewer in contemplating the fractured, noisy detritus of a cultural landscape that exists in their own backyard.
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