The original intention of this project is to be an art interruption for the usual experience of my home area in Eastern Oregon, moving westward along Highway 26 which traces the first 120 miles of the Oregon Trail in the Oregon Territory. State law requires that no trespassing signs in Oregon must be: no smaller than eight inches in height and 11 inches in width, contain the words “Closed to Entry” or words to that effect. Adhering to sign standards, these prints mimic signs of land ownership and control but extend invitations in place of exclusion. They send invitations for self-regard and accumulatively draws attention to the fence as an enabler of settler colonization, attention to the illusion of land ownership, and attention to the history of the American West as a constructed entity. Words to that Effect brings visual attention to the fence and accompanying signs as a sprawling symbol of state settler powers. It provokes an imagining of release and possibilities to dismantle settler colonial paradigms. All bodies are implicated in the aggressive political, environmental, and economical unrest. We must all nurture a radical ethico-political engagement with our individual accountability, this is to say that this engagement is about accommodating and recognizing and allowing for sensitivities to other ways of being and experiencing. This is to recognize that this type of engagement is open-ended, dynamic, and has no solid assurances or outcomes, but it is a process all must begin to engage in nonetheless. By seeing the structure that holds all captive and practicing a nurturing accountability to varied experiences and the uncommonalities between them all, a constructive potency can be cultivated that can guide a liberation of possibilities outward from the power and limitations of a settler state.
I made over 75 individual print designs with varying edition sizes on a cylindrical proofing press, printed with wood type that has a local history of printing strike posters for unions for decades in Portland, OR. There is always so much more that one could say that cannot be crammed into a simple artist statement, especially revolving around the social impact and history printmaking has. Perhaps more writing to come on that someday — until then, below is a selection of the prints in their original installation environment, click each image to enlarge. Thank you for taking time to look, as I deeply feel that is the best tool we can all cultivate right now.