wRonGsiDe, neon, steel, aluminum, 12' x 2' x 6" (each end)

After investigating the Rio Grande depot as the site for an artwork, I decided to engage the exterior of the building. As I was drawn to the large, iconic Rio Grande sign that sits atop the roof, my own personal history with Salt Lake City and the greater Salt Lake valley came into play. It (re)occurred to me that the sign was made exclusively for the East Side, and that the depot marks a border zone of sorts that divides the city, and by extension, the whole valley into two parts, East and West. I wanted to highlight the unconsidered, spare skeleton face of the sign that presented itself to the West side. The installation, by parenthetically framing this side of the sign’s armature, invites the viewer to consider what a sign for the wrong side of the tracks might say.

&ME! (cargo nets, shoelaces, yarn, rubber, human hair, paper)

A two-part, layered collaboration, a sculpture and drawing hybrid of sorts. Artists Sheila Pepe and Colby Brewer work in the overlapping areas that exist between drawing and sculpture. An initial collaboration took place between Brewer and Pepe, who transformed the empty gallery space into both a walk-in environment and psychological playground. Brewer connected and hung four cargo nets, bifurcating the space and altering its functionality, from the top of one wall to the bottom of the opposite wall. Brewer also made a ceiling to floor wall drawing with rubber hoses connected to the nets. Pepe then crocheted shoelaces together and hung them over, under and through the nets creating the second “layer.” Public participants then began hanging or tying their additions to and through the nets and web creating the final colorful layer. Throughout the exhibit the public is invited to add to the piece continuing their collaboration with the artists.

static, (steel studs, newspaper, glue) 16’ x 16’ x 18’

Static is a space organized by using steel studs to construct a rib-like skeletal form in the guise of three interconnected corridors. Its formal qualities are borrowed from the surrounding architecture and its function mirrors the setting by adding another system of entrances and exits. Walking becomes an important activity again as much in the making of the piece, as now in the experiencing of it. Vertical planes are filled and reinforced by thousands of contact cement covered newspapers between their ribs. While the empty horizontal planes give rise to the question of finished or unfinished. Is this fabrication or deconstruction? Is it going up or coming apart? It crashes into itself to form a language, and it is difficult to focus on any one piece of information.