Transcapes- Solo Exhibition Bridgette Mayer Gallery

In October 2006 Dana Hargrove had her first solo exhibition at the Bridgette Mayer Gallery.

Artist Statement:
Transcapes

Transcapes is an exhibition that questions the many ways in which the landscape is represented by our culture. The representation of the landscape through various existing systems interests me; it can alter reality keeping us at an abstracted distance by turning the human into passive spectators and consumers. It can change landscape into a capitalized form. Most of the works in the exhibition explore this idea by using found imagery taken out of context to question the original intent, references to mapping, the media, digital landscapes, military intelligence and travel systems all provide inspiration. This exhibition encourages further thought on the connections between nature and culture, where struggles occur as we alter the land in which we live.

Below is an essay that Dr Kelly Wacker wrote for the catalogue:

Transcapes Kelly Wacker, 2006
TRANSCAPE

As a native of Scotland, Dana Hargrove was reared in a culture that places great significance in its landscape. As such, it is not surprising that she pays keen attention to the landscapes she occupies and passes through, as well as to the ways in which society conceptualizes them. Transcape aptly describes the work in this exhibition – it embraces both the representation of the landscape itself and our engagement with it. Work in this exhibition is open to simultaneous multiple, even conflicting, interpretation. Does it refer to war and/or recreation? Is its meaning benign and/or malevolent? Are the forms natural and/or constructed? Does it represent a macrocosm and/or microcosm? Hargrove’s paintings and mixed media work create a slippery environment of shifting boundaries and content that rewards the careful viewer willing to explore its inherent multiplicity. As a widely traveled individual not currently living in her native country Hargrove’s work reveals her role as observer, of being in the privileged position of seeing the world in a fresh way. In this manner she exists in a metascape, the in-between world where unexpected connections can be made. Such emphasis on travel (and by implication, movement) implies the presence of the body, which although largely absent in her work, its impact is felt everywhere. Much of Hargove’s work investigates systems that she breaks down into modular units; as fragmented pieces they reflect the ways in which we often experience our world as we absorb information while we catapult through the air, hurl along highways, navigate cavernous cyberspace, and mediate media. We often only have time to catch snippets of the landscape or datascape around us and it is precisely these fragments that Hargrove gives painstaking attention.

Kelly Wacker, 2006

Kelly Wacker is an Assistant Professor of Art and the Gallery Director at the University of Montevallo in Alabama.