The Bow Hunter
While working with Frank, I shadowed a bow hunter. Dressed in camouflage he told me he felt like a "kid playing dress up." It was symbolic because he did disguise himself, but in a different way and with different intentions. He even used a spray which eliminated "all traces of human scent."
I accompanied and documented him during excursions. I sat across from him, at the base of a tree, opposite and below his tree stand. We sat in a triangle, silently, vigilantly, for hours. We waited for something to occur based largely on chance.
The day unfolded in chapters: the dark of night, the dawn, the early morning, etc. Elements characterized each block of time, for example, the sound of a flock of turkeys roosting during the last minutes of daylight. We were not allowed to move. In order to understand my surroundings, I watched him watch the woods.
I recorded videos of the hunter navigating his territory and included them in an installation. The video played in slow motion on a projector in a storage room I covered with wood paneling. Along the staircase leading to it were the two deer I mounted with Frank, who came to the gallery opening.
I accompanied and documented him during excursions. I sat across from him, at the base of a tree, opposite and below his tree stand. We sat in a triangle, silently, vigilantly, for hours. We waited for something to occur based largely on chance.
The day unfolded in chapters: the dark of night, the dawn, the early morning, etc. Elements characterized each block of time, for example, the sound of a flock of turkeys roosting during the last minutes of daylight. We were not allowed to move. In order to understand my surroundings, I watched him watch the woods.
I recorded videos of the hunter navigating his territory and included them in an installation. The video played in slow motion on a projector in a storage room I covered with wood paneling. Along the staircase leading to it were the two deer I mounted with Frank, who came to the gallery opening.
AFA Gallery, Scranton, PA 2010
