Samuel Denoncour: Statement for 'This Land Is'
The driving force behind This Land Is was the time I spent traveling alone across the United States. I spent a year venturing into the vast landscape of Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, California, and Colorado. The land provides elements of magic, and I was fascinated by its ability to magnify reality. There were days and nights where I felt as if I was walking in and out of a dream. I was lost in the land and overall that’s what I wanted. The works in this exhibition reflect that submersion into strange, sublime spaces.
I recorded the stories of strangers, myths of the land, the rants of recluses, and sounds of life moving around me with little awareness to my presence, in an attempt to document fleeting moments of importance. It was a time in my life where, because nothing was certain, every observation felt significant. This Land Is attempts to provide an experience of poetic interaction by sharing my experience of being lost, but always finding something.
I’m interested in creating a record of memories. I make works that journal my experiences to remind me of moments I hope to keep. The paintings are reactions to times of clarity and tranquility. They are a reflection on past interactions with my environment and the people within it that I find important and moving enough to delve further into. Through the process of creation I hope to better understand memory and recreate an image that is worthy of the memory from which it was spawned.
––Samuel Denoncour