COLE M. ROBBINS
Volatile Traversal: Explorations of Home and Body Bound by Recollection this is an auto-ethnography, a testimonial of a woman’s life as an artist where ideas begin in sketchbooks scribbled ink stains the layered pages promises to herself while traversing everyday routines from the commute between cities and towns to the rollercoaster of emotions buried memories resurface consideration of home and the places in between against the odds, into the questions, experiencing life hands on, heart on a sleeve, in a ripped pair of jeans, stomping on sidewalks in steel-toed boots treading barefoot on backcountry trails keeping the rubber to the road on two wheels carrying herself through the Cascade Mountains slowing down the pace, climbing the challenges balancing her body, against the wind anticipating gravity guiding her descent into the blur of painted white and yellow lines crossed over, dotted, and doubled her heartbeat pounding against the pavement holding onto the heat of the flames wood crackling, smoke disappearing clearing a space to occupy, marked on a map a record of events scattered, sent across the miles connections linked and locked in time chained like conversations across her body
Similar to the two-dimensional maps where lines connect, cross over, and organize information are the lines marked by symbols, borders, and lifestyles across different regions, states, and countries that overlap. What is often not recognized or discussed are the SECRETS SWEPT UNDER THE FREEWAYS. We drive at high speeds, ignoring the painted-on signs meant to remind us of the dangers and how quickly and easily OUR BODIES CAN BECOME A CASUALTY. Posted warnings are not enough to sound the alarm for the majority of tourists and consumers. Today, the derailed economy is evident. Its FAULTY FOUNDATION is obvious through shattered windows, left without plywood, in houses that were recently and are no longer SOMEONE’S HOME. The house no longer shelters bodies from the storm, no longer keeps you warm, no longer welcomes you home—because you are not invited into the space containing the MEMORY of the moment it was taken away and given to no one. Cole M. Robbins Collected Ephemera – 2012 – Photograph
Image courtesy of the artist
www.colemrobbins.com born Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1981
education BA in Art, University of Alaska, Anchorage, 2005 Dual Degree MA/MFA, San Francisco Art Institute, 2012
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