Artist Statement
I use the camera as a tool that isolates experience from representation, its image unable to hold more than a semblance, or glimmer. In recording my response throughout the home, studio and landscape, these residual glints are all that remain. Unable to seize either instance or moment, I contrast the presumed stability of stands of trees; ground and sky; plastered walls, polished floors and tabletops; with the subtle yet incessant fluctuation of atmospheric and material environment – clouds and mist surrounding rolling hills and mountain tops; suspended twigs, weeds and leaves; undulating folds of fabric, screen or foil; collections of dust, dew and debris; all contained within the space of their reflection.
My process combines a documentary approach with direct intervention and simple fabrication. Constructed scenarios are presented alongside seemingly ordinary views, calling the authenticity of both into question. Stressing the fragmentary nature of perceptual response, my practice situates sequential and composite photographic images against digital video streams that depict similar or identical subject matter, emphasizing the common yet incongruous nature of these media. Isolated instants join together, transformed into distinct events that remain at once particular and transitory, with each slivered frame adding to the collective image of what once was, and what no longer is.
Process Statement
Prompted by the difficulty in reconciling past and present moments, my recent projects combine digital video sequences with both singular, composite, and multi-panel photographs that slowly reveal the evocative charge of sites that are at once recognizable and foreign.
Dawn Roe works with still photographs and digital video in both singular and combined forms. She relies upon the mimetic nature of these media to activate and make visible perceptual inconsistencies between experienced and recorded time.
Recent solo and two-person exhibitions include The William King Museum in Abingdon, VA (2014); The White Box at The University of Oregon in Portland (2013); Clara M. Eagle Gallery at Murray State University, Kentucky (2013); Screen Space Gallery, Melbourne, VIC, Australia (2012); The Orlando Museum of Art (2010); and Newspace Center for Photography (2009). Her works have also been exhibited at The Asheville Art Museum, Asheville, NC (2014); The Copenhagen Photo Festival, Copenhagen, Denmark (2014); The Perth Centre for Photography, Perth, WA, Australia (2013); The Light Factory Contemporary Museum of Photography and Film, Charlotte, NC (2012); Beam Contemporary, Melbourne, VIC, Australia (2011); and other venues throughout the U.S. and abroad.
Roe was recently awarded a public art commission from the Broward County Division of Cultural Affairs, which will result in the production of a suite of artworks for the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. She is also the recipient of awards from The Associated Colleges of the South/Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, The United Arts of Central Florida, The Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and The Society for Photographic Education.
Her work has been featured in numerous print and web-based journals including Oxford American, One One Thousand, and Fraction Magazine, and she is a contributor to both fototazo, and Urbanautica. She recently engaged in a long-form interview with Lauren Henkin as part of Tilted Arc's Women in the Landscape series. As well, a collaborative essay with Leigh-Ann Pahapill and Lisa Zaher on her Goldfields project was published in the Routledge print journal, Photographies, in 2013. She recently founded the public art project window (re/production | re/presentation) and serves as the curator.
Roe received a BFA from Marylhurst University and an MFA from Illinois State University. She divides her time between Asheville, North Carolina and Winter Park, Florida where she serves as Associate Professor of Art at Rollins College.
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