Cover
an installation
at Doppler PDX
Portland,
OR -- May 6 - 22, 2010
"Cover"
installation by Holly A. Senn at Doppler PDX, 2010. Photo
credit: Duncan Price.
Artist Statement
Outside Doppler
PDX the Everett Street landscape is almost completely covered by
hardscape, save for a few trees that, in turn, provide cover. The
environment reminds me that covers conceal and cloak as well as embrace
and include. In response, I’ve created a landscape inside
that juxtaposes the exterior visible elements of binding and protection
with more elusive interior elements such as memory, discovery, and
escape.
I create sculptures and installations in which I explore the life cycle
of ideas—the organic, non-linear process in which thoughts
have a genesis and then are disseminated, adopted or refuted, forgotten
or referenced. My art investigations are inextricably intertwined with
my work as a virtual reference librarian at Pacific Lutheran University
where, while surrounded by books, I interact with patrons who prefer
digital resources. Environments are important to my process; I take
inspiration from both my ongoing examination of botanical forms and the
location surrounding exhibition spaces. As I cut, rip, realign and
glue, I reflect on each new generations’ collective erasure
of some element of the past and its casting of new ideas into the
future. My work is as ephemeral and fleeting as ideas committed to
paper.