Carolyn Monastra
The Ice House
2001

Name: The Ice House
Brand: Carolyn Monastra
Price: 2500 USD
Availability: InStock

About the Item

Edition 3/5 The Dominion of Trees (2000 - 2005) Constructed fictions about humans relationship to the natural world “Nature is never spent” - G. M. Hopkins This series of landscape-based narratives is influenced, in large part, by my deeply felt connections to the land. I draw from fairy tales, myths, the fragmentary space of dreams, and contemporary notions of figuration to discover and create mystery in the realm of the natural world. The people and places may seem familiar yet there is something uncanny or restless in what is being presented. As fairy tales use characters and symbols to appeal to our conscious and unconscious mind, these pictures work in a similar manner to engage the viewer on several levels – aesthetically, emotionally, and psychologically. But, whereas fairy tales find their resolution by the last page, my photographs are intended to be fictive fragments which invite the viewer to create their own unabridged reveries. A primary focus for me in this series is to carefully modulate distinctions between the natural and the perceived. Some of these images came as a gift, a surprise: the same canopied forest I crossed dozens of times struck me once with its haphazard geometry of fallen trees; the mirthful gathering of the circle of ferns drew me closer to investigate. Even in my staged scenarios, this element of surprise reveals itself in perhaps grander, but equally intimate ways: the greenhouse, seemingly cozy at first glance, challenged me to play with its odd sense of scale; the condensation on my windows pulled me from my slumber in the morning to revel in its mysterious beauty. Creating this body of work has spurred my consciousness to explore the interplay between the abundance of Nature and the abundance of human perception.

Creator:

Carolyn Monastra

Creation Year:

2001

Dimensions:

Height: 30 in (76.2 cm)Width: 38 in (96.52 cm)

Medium:

C Print

Movement & Style:

Contemporary

Period:

2010-