| Christine J Shanks |
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Artist Statement
"Life is a process of becoming, a combination of states we have to go through. Where people fail is that they wish to elect a state and remain in it. This is a kind of death." - Anais Nin
The Driving Through series developed as a reaction to a time of intense personal transformation. Many internal and environmental changes were impacting my life, causing turmoil, loneliness, yearning and resistance. Living and working in a sterile, suburban area only intensified these feelings. I created the Driving Through series in reaction to these emotions, using the evocative, rural landscape of my childhood home to express them.
Because I felt uprooted and disconnected, I sought places that reminded me of my childhood home and the America I love, an America that was quickly being bulldozed and forgotten. Much of what I valued seemed to be disappearing: Plastic, cookie-cutter developments replaced unique neighborhoods; anonymity threatened the closeness of community, banal chain stores pushed out individually owned shops, and pollution-pumping factories swallowed up the rolling, rural landscapes. I felt a great need to capture the degeneration of the icons of my America.
I feel the contrast of motion and stillness captured in the Driving Through series symbolizes our universal struggle to accept the inevitable changes of life's journey. As the landscapes rush by, a clear sense of moving on is obvious. The absence of people represents the isolation and disconnectedness caused by a fast paced culture. The swift moving vehicle symbolizes our inability to stop and pause.
The photographs making up the Driving Through series are archival pigment prints exhibited at 32"x40" and were shot with a digital SLR from a moving car.
The Driving Through series developed as a reaction to a time of intense personal transformation. Many internal and environmental changes were impacting my life, causing turmoil, loneliness, yearning and resistance. Living and working in a sterile, suburban area only intensified these feelings. I created the Driving Through series in reaction to these emotions, using the evocative, rural landscape of my childhood home to express them.
Because I felt uprooted and disconnected, I sought places that reminded me of my childhood home and the America I love, an America that was quickly being bulldozed and forgotten. Much of what I valued seemed to be disappearing: Plastic, cookie-cutter developments replaced unique neighborhoods; anonymity threatened the closeness of community, banal chain stores pushed out individually owned shops, and pollution-pumping factories swallowed up the rolling, rural landscapes. I felt a great need to capture the degeneration of the icons of my America.
I feel the contrast of motion and stillness captured in the Driving Through series symbolizes our universal struggle to accept the inevitable changes of life's journey. As the landscapes rush by, a clear sense of moving on is obvious. The absence of people represents the isolation and disconnectedness caused by a fast paced culture. The swift moving vehicle symbolizes our inability to stop and pause.
The photographs making up the Driving Through series are archival pigment prints exhibited at 32"x40" and were shot with a digital SLR from a moving car.
