Here and There / Oil on linen / 24” x 18” / 2022

Here and There features non-binary multi-disciplinary artist Amber Imrie sitting on their suitcase beside a collared men’s shirt that features in a variety of her performance pieces. We collaborated last spring to make source images for the painting by Zoom, connected by trans-Atlantic fiber optic wires from the Aland Islands to New York City. At the time, Imrie was packing up to travel back to the United States.

Central my thoughts in making this painting has been the question, “How do we engage with our social identity without letting outside forces define us?”

Imrie grew up in rural America and much of her work focuses on disrupting persistent attitudes about gender and sexuality. What do we see first? Imrie or the markers of their identity? In Imrie’s artistic practice, she knits red cowls, addressing the concept of the "redneck"; in this painting, red infiltrates everything. Boundaries - between objects, light and space - break down.