of grave ecological issues that are not only statewide, but also national and global concerns. In the past fifteen years, urban expansion and technological innovations have undoubtedly provided many Americans with increased convenience in everyday life. However, more and more people and organizations are becoming aware of the future complications that unchecked “progress” can cause. Owens explains the nature of these anxieties in relationship to The Unbearable Absence of Landscape. “The inspiration for the concept, aesthetic, and composition all come from a body of work I started in 2011, which stems from a dystopian concern that in the future the landscape will be unrecognizable. This is kind of a romantic plea to maintain the status quo in development because the faster we develop technologies and populations and everything, the faster we deplete our access to nature.” The assembled work will be installed in November with the generous support of Wallace Engineering and Manhattan Construction. For more information on The Unbearable Absence of Landscape and Tulsa’s 108 Contemporary Gallery, please visit http://108contemporary.org/program/knit-bomb and the project’s Facebook page facebook.com/groups/ theunbearableabsenceoflandscapes. Knitters’ accounts of their experiences as project participants can also be found at 108 Contemporary’s blog: 108contemporary.org/news. n Erin Schalk is a practicing artist and freelance writer. She earned her BFA from the University of Oklahoma in 2010, and she is currently an MFA candidate at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She may be reached at elschalk@gmail.com. Installation tests with Romy Owens. Image courtesy of the artist.
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Premier Issue NOVEMBER 2015 Our next chapter begins here. 405magazine.com
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