Jackson Mills Smith
Through the Briar Patch:
Conceptualizing Rural American Subculture
Spring 2020
Roy Tomlinson
Kristin Bradshaw
Underlying concepts of memory, myth, and collective oral history are inherently bound to
the cultural landscapes of the rural United States and its niche folkways I experienced growing
up. From the bayous and spoil banks of my birthplace in Southern Louisiana, to the rolling
cornfields and river bottoms of my home along the Southern Indiana-Illinois border, these
notions heavily occupy the sphere of my existence, both then and now. Generational interactions
between the personal and the natural are omnipresent, framed by notions of leisure and labor,
communities rooted in tradition and ritual, and the generation of culture through each of these.
In the past, my work has revolved around the investigation of these concepts concerning
my father’s history as a young man pursuing carpentry in Southern Louisiana leading up to my
birth. However, my current frame of reference has shifted to a related historical context shortly
after this timeframe; the history of the family deer camp in the Pinkstaff River Bottoms of
Southern Illinois, about 30 miles from my childhood home. By utilizing this source material, I’m
able to conduct research and gather information in a way that’s pertinent to the concepts I’ve
continuously investigated in the past, while also uncovering new developments that have not yet
been investigated within my creative practice. Research is conducted within this frame by
gathering photographs, conducting phone call interviews, writing and receiving letters, and
mining personal memories while also gathering academic sources and studying creative
influences.
Some questions I hope to investigate moving forward include: How might a
research-based writing practice contextualize or inform an ongoing series of object-oriented
installations? Through direct configurations and manipulations, and in conjunction with other
objects and materials, how might a series of banal objects convey a particular narrative, event, or
cultural landscape? What role does oral history and tradition play in both “leisurely” and
laborious activities within the rural cultural landscapes of the United States? In what ways does
memory, both collective and individual, perpetuate myth within these landscapes? How do the
above-mentioned concepts generate a sense of community and culture in the United States?
Existing within the scope of an ongoing experimental writing practice, the
aforementioned concepts maintain relevant roles in conjunction with the investigation of the
perpetuation of myth through oral, collective history and memory within the cultural landscape at
hand. This writing practice allows me to concretize ephemeral, emotive notions of remembering,
while also preserving the unique language specific to this place and time.
Words and language occupy the space of a page in the same manner that objects occupy
the space of a room. Both are disclosing information, redirecting the viewer’s attention to an
environment beyond the gallery. The ordinary, the banal, and the everyday are accurate
descriptors of the objects utilized within my installation practice. I utilize familiar objects in a
manner that breaks audience expectations. Through the constant reconfiguring and manipulating
of these objects in conjunction with one another, audiences are offered a small glimpse of the
roles they serve in the mythically poetic, rural American landscapes that are often overlooked or
dismissed in the art institution.
A variety of artists, theorists, authors, and poets such as Josh Minkus, Marcel
Broodthaers, CA Conrad, Frank Stanford, and Simon J. Bronner allow me to consider the various
ways in which objects, gestures, and text can convey ideas or narratives in various combinations,
while also being informed by a consistent research-based practice. Broodthaers is of particular
interest in the way the artist consistently presents audiences with a lexicon of repeated objects,
allowing interpretations to be designated over time and altered through physical reconfigurations.
The collection of sources I’m researching encourages the further consideration of how words
1
and their associations live on a page to generate meaning or interpretation, offering audiences
and readers a glimpse into the folkways of the United States that are a part of my identity as an
artist.
The shape I envision this project taking consists of a series of installation pieces that
operate in conjunction with a personal experimental writing practice. Studio time will be equally
divided among the two. New explorations of object configurations and installations will occur on
a bi-weekly basis, resulting in a minimum of 3 to 4 installation pieces throughout the course of
my second thesis semester. The final thesis presentation will consist of an installation piece that
features the most successful aspects of the works created previously. Objects and writing will
1
“Marcel Broodthaers: A Retrospective”, The Museum of Modern Art, MoMA, Accessed
September 29, 2019, https://www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/1542.
continue to inform each other and the way I consider the series of pieces in an overarching
manner. While a select number of writing pieces will be integrated into the final installation
alongside objects, a short perfect-bound book will also be created and presented with the final
exhibition as a mechanism to present the culmination of writing created during the semester.
Jackson Mills Smith
Artist Statement: Thesis Defense FA2020
Often utilizing the pseudonym, “muggybrew,” Jackson Mills Smith (b. 1999) studies the
language, history, imagery, and myth of various rural niche cultures and their associated
activities within the United States. The artist and writer currently resides in Portland, Oregon.
Being born in Louisiana and raised intermittently between a small farm in Southern Indiana, the
river bottoms of Southern Illinois, and the swampy backwaters of his birthplace, Jackson strives
to navigate the cultural sphere that shapes his own current identity. In doing such, he is also
introducing audiences to a cultural landscape that is often overlooked or not recognized within
the institutional art world. Work often takes the form of installation, sculpture, photography, and
performance. Jackson’s conceptual framework and experimental writing practice serve as the
foundation and blueprint of his practice, no matter the medium.
Through oral storytelling, found family photographs, interviews, letters, collective and individual
memory, and first-hand experience, the post-disciplinary artist brings forth and introduces a
cultural narrative of rural America and the events that occur in these places in a unique lens. By
consistently researching and questioning the values, traditions, and oral collective histories of
these specific environments, Jackson’s creative practice regularly shifts and evolves through an
exploration of materials and found objects which serve as reference points to his concepts.
Jackson Mills Smith
Project Statement: Thesis Defense FA2020
By conceptualizing the history of the family deer camp, non-disciplinary artist Jackson Mills
Smith presents audiences with a multifaceted body of work in the form of both a publication and
installation. The language and imagery of a rural cultural landscape specific to the United States
are ever-present in the concepts and ideas at hand. In studying the overarching notion of a
collective oral history, while also considering how memory and remembering perpetuate myth, a
body of work is created in a vocabulary pertinent to the artist’s background. The conceptual
pathways presented in Thicket
and The Cocklebur Archive
serve as glimpses of a world steeped
in ritual and tradition, a world where notions of leisure and labor are interchangeable and fluid.
The relationship that language and text maintain with the page in The Cocklebur Archive is also
applicable to the objects presented in Thicket
. There is no hierarchy of form or media from the
gallery space to the page. Language oscillates between sparse, minimal configurations and dense,
descriptive masses of prose that lack punctuation or formality but capture the saturated imagery
and unique vocabulary embedded in the subject matter. Each facet of the installation is a vessel,
a reference point for imagery that redirects the viewer’s attention to environments and instances
beyond the gallery. The multimedia nature of the work allows for several audience entry points,
whether it be in objects, language, images, or sounds. By acting simultaneously as an artist,
curator, storyteller, and poet, Jackson’s flexibility in making allows him to consistently pursue a
variety of mediums and materials that will best serve the concepts at hand. The artist and writer
aims to facilitate a space of open dialogue with audience members, where their stories are shared
and brought to life by association.
Jackson Mills Smith
FA2020
Thesis Defense Oral
Introduction
● Hello everyone! My name is Jackson Mills Smith. I’m an Intermedia major.
Welcome to my Thesis Defense Presentation. I really appreciate the fact that
you all took to the time to log on and make an online appearance.
● I’d just like to take a moment to personally thank my Mentor, Kristin
Bradshaw. You’ve been a wonderful, warm, guiding light and inspiration not
only in my Thesis journey, but pretty much throughout my entire college
experience. I’d also like to thank my community and my friends, both at
PNCA and elsewhere. I’m sure you know who you are. None of this work
matters if I don’t have the opportunity to share and discuss it with you all.
● My beautiful, wonderful partner Isabella also deserves immense amounts of
praise for constantly being my support, my caretaker, and my best friend.
● Lastly, I’d like to thank my family. Words can’t begin to assign meaning to
the sense of gratitude and appreciation that I feel towards my parents, my
little sister and brother, and my grandparents. I definitely would not be
where I’m at right now if it weren’t for the massive amounts of love,
support, and encouragement I’ve received from them.
● My time at PNCA has been an incredible journey, a journey full of personal
and artistic growth, community building, and excitement. Thank you all so
much!
Personal Introduction
● From the bayous and spoil banks of my birthplace in Southern Louisiana, to
the rolling cornfields and river bottoms of my home along the Southern
Indiana-Illinois border, the various spheres I lived and grew up in as a young
person were drenched in notions of a unique rural culture that’s relatively
common in the United States.
● It wasn’t until I moved out and headed out here at age 18 that I realized how
misunderstood and misrepresented this way of life was in the setting of the
urban, institutional art world.
● As I continued to find my footing as an artist during my time here at PNCA,
I began to come to terms with my own lived experiences in the scope of this
culture that, in my mind, was never a political weapon or an opposition, but
rather a world of shared experiences rooted in tradition, storytelling, and oral
history. This world has a language of its own, a language that doesn’t live in
the gallery or the museum, but in the environment, the spaces, the events, the
objects, and the people that surrounded me as a young person.
● My practice begins with the discovery of what it means to simultaneously
exist as the son of a deer hunter, a poet, a storyteller, and an artist.
Project Introduction
● The world I navigated as a younger person was introduced to me by my
father at a very young age. Activities like hunting and fishing flooded my
daily life and would later directly influence my relationship with and
perspective of the natural world, labor, culture, and art.
● From the months of November to January, from the age of 6-12, my winters
were spent in the quarters of a small room constructed of plastic tarps and an
assortment of hocked furniture and appliances. The guests included my
father’s Cajun family friends, men who make their living as carpenters, and
maintained a passion for the outdoors and all the activities it had to offer.
These men mentored my father prior to my birth. The childhood and life
experiences I grew up with are very much owed to them as they are to the
rest of my family. Everything my father and I learned about deer hunting,
fishing, and building was passed down by them.
● This time was spent squatting in an old metal pole barn in the Embarrass
River Bottoms just outside Pinkstaff, Illinois. Although my father and his
friends were leasing the land to hunt on, the barn was a bonus feature,
lagniappe (as they would say), and eventually became the deer camp for
several years. We were accidentally deemed a “High Power Hunting Club”
by a curious farmer one season, the sarcastically humorous title has stuck
with us ever since.
● My final thesis project is a conceptualization of the family deer camp that
takes the form of a publication and an installation that operate in tandem
with one another.
● Some of the key concepts associated with my work include the overarching
notion of a collective oral history. From here I’m able to consider how
memory and remembering perpetuate myth, while also studying notions of
tradition and ritual, and how that ties to concepts of leisure and labor within
the rural cultural landscape.
Conceptual Framework
Line of Inquiry
● Some questions I continuously investigate in this work include:
○ How does an experimental writing practice contextualize an
object-oriented installation?
○ Through direct configuration and manipulation, and in conjunction
with other objects and materials, how might a series of banal objects
convey a particular narrative, event, or cultural landscape?
○ What role does oral history and tradition play in both “leisurely” and
laborious activities within the rural cultural landscapes of the United
States?
○ In what ways does memory, both collective and individual, perpetuate
myth within these landscapes?
○ How do the above-mentioned concepts generate a sense of community
and culture?
Myth, Memory & Remembering, Storytelling & Oral History
● By embracing the faulty nature of memory and remembering, new pathways
unfold. As stories, oral histories, and personal accounts are passed onward to
the next listener, details are lost, or in the case of my family’s deer hunting
stories, embellished and exaggerated perhaps.
● As a story continues to travel its course, the embellishments and lost details
become just as vital as the main content of the account itself. This in turn,
allows for a form of modern myth to take shape.
● These ideas are all operating within the framework of a deep tradition that
allows for the continuation of an extremely labor intensive activity disguised
as leisure. Although I have little desire to trace this tradition and its
ritualistic properties back to the source, I’m still aware of the underpinnings
and meaning behind an activity such as deer hunting that is now deemed as
an unnecessary activity by contemporary and urban, capitalistic standards.
● This relationship between myth, oral history, and memory play a major role
in the objects I utilize within my installation and the language present within
the experimental poetry of my publication.
● Author and theorist Simon J. Bronner has served as a valuable source of
information when researching and studying the implications of tradition,
storytelling, and the role of various folkways in the generation of culture in
the United States. In particular, his book Following Tradition
has allowed
me to consider the larger implications and overarching connections of my
concepts.
Methodology & Final Works
Publication: The Cocklebur Archive
● My writing practice allows me to concretize ephemeral, emotive notions of
remembering, while also preserving the unique language specific to this
place and time.
● I look to poetic work like CA Conrad’s Marsupial Afternoon
for formatting
and structural inspiration. Conrad consistently challenges the conventions of
concrete poetry and the limitations of the page through the use of unique
letter patterns and experimental poetic structures.
● I often think of the relationship that language and text has with the page in
the same way that I consider objects in a physical space or environment.
There is no hierarchy of form or media from the gallery space to the page.
● The Cocklebur Archive
is a collection of experimental poetry embodying
and contextualizing the concepts that serve as the foundation of my body of
work. There are 15 copies in the total edition.
● The publication is 8.5 x 11 inches, coil bound, and contains 19 poems, 6 of
which have unique letterpress embossments. The size of the publication
allows readers and viewers to consider the limitations and implications of
“the page”. The metal coil binding allows for a less restricted or directed
interaction with the piece. The viewer/reader maintains a sense of autonomy.
The front cover is foil stamped with a single, silver antler, and the back
cover similarly presents a line of barbed wire, symbols that often occupy the
mind when navigating personal memories.
● On the back of each page of the publication is a single line of dots and
dashes, morse code originating from a long list of around 50 significant GPS
coordinate locations marked by my father and friends over the course of
several years. By concealing the actual series of numbers pertinent to the
location, the family’s hunting spots remain confidential. This also
encourages the reader/viewer to interact with the publication in a more
elevated and engaging manner.
● Language oscillates between sparse, minimal configurations and dense,
descriptive masses of prose that lack punctuation or formality, but capture
the saturated imagery and unique vocabulary embedded in the subject
matter.
● A variety of cuts and symbols are also present within the poems themselves.
These are chosen and presented in a manner that either connatates the
symbolism present within the writing itself, or serves as a stand-in image for
objects or scenes pertinent to the memory, story, place, or time. This
relationship also exists with the objects and media present in my installation
piece Thicket.
Installation: Thicket
● Thicket
is an object-oriented installation investigating the cryptic and
mysterious nature of memory and storytelling within the context of the
family deer camp. Each facet of the installation is a vessel, a reference point
for imagery that redirects the viewer’s attention to environments and
instances beyond the gallery.
● The ordinary, the banal, and the everyday are accurate descriptors of the
objects utilized within my installation practice. However, the various
configurations, manipulations, and arrangements guide the mind towards
situations and circumstances that exist elsewhere. By making assumptions
about the objects’ relationships with one another, audience members can
then begin to further understand the contexts that the work is stemming
from.
● By utilizing an array of found and gathered objects, I’m able to break the
viewer’s expectations and perceptions of the material's original function or
context. The objects in my installations are recognizable and somewhat
familiar. With the use of juxtaposition, repetition, multiplicity, and light
fabrication, the materials and objects take on a different likeness that blend
notions of the everyday and the folkloric or the mythic. This encourages a
different sort of interrogation than audiences typically have with visual
work.
● Viewers don’t feel the need to question what this object is or how it
functions, but are instead investigating how the objects operate in
conjunction with one another.
● The work and practice of the conceptual installation artist and writer Marcel
Broodthaers provides several examples of how objects, language, gestures,
stories, and ideas can coalesce into a multifaceted installation or assemblage.
I’ve spent a great deal of time this semester researching the artist, which has
heightened my personal vocabulary of language and ideas.
● Bootjacks
○ The 25 handmade wooden objects present within Thicket
are boot
jacks, a useful tool for removing one’s tall, muddy boots with ease
after returning from the fields or the forest from a hunt.
○ These objects are made in the same likeness as the bootjacks present
in the deer camp, a replication of an extremely simple, utilitarian
object created by my father and his friends.
○ This series of objects has a more direct relationship with the
object-oriented architecture of the camp. The rugged, unfinished
appearance provides viewers with a direct, physical example of the
ad-hoc nature of building and making so often associated with my
family’s activities.
○ Five of the bootjacks are carved with the names of deer stand
locations and other pertinent sites on the acreage my family owns and
leases in Crawford and Lawrence County. These locations also
correspond with the previously mentioned morse code conversions
present in The Cocklebur Archive
.
○ The objects carry a conceptual weight not only specific to notions of
the deer camp, but also to the grounds we called home as well.
Radios & Gravel
● Also present within the gallery are several radios of various sizes and
types, all of which are dispersed on the floor atop multiple piles of
gravel, a material readily abundant and familiar to the cultural
landscape in discussion. Each radio constantly emits the sound of
white noise and static throughout the space.
● Radio static is essentially a loss of information, absent of recognizable
sounds and communications. Much like the act of remembering,
flipping through radio dials allows the user to pinpoint a specific
moment in time, a familiar echo in the dense thicket of memory.
● By utilizing residual media and technology such as radios, I’m also
transporting viewers to a place in the United States that’s not so
obsessed with what’s new or “happening.” This exemplifies the sort of
nostalgic, technological and cultural gap between the rural and the
urban.
● Looking to Charles Acland’s “Residual Media,” I’m offered a look
into the history of media and the socio-political, artistic, and economic
implications that surround it. By discussing the consequences of
constantly pursuing the “new” in a hyper-capitalistic society, Acland
studies the various functions of outdated or “residual” media.
Projection, Shelf, & Targets
● An experimental short film, titled Soma Ffog: Site 6262 is displayed in the
form of a projection within Thicket
. The video is thrown from a high vantage
point directly above the doorway entrance of the gallery. The projector
equipment rests on a hand-made shelf, which was created in the physical
likeness of a typical deer stand, high above the viewers line of sight. The
shelf is painted with what I call “gallery camouflage,” encouraging viewers
to consider ideas of the “seen and unseen,” a concept heavily embedded in
the activity of deer hunting.
● The title of the piece originates from a personal discovery on the family
property. A number of oil wells have been steadily operating throughout a
variety of locations near my family’s hunting sites. One of the main oil tank
batteries, a common meeting place for returning from the forest or field, has
the name “Amos Goff” sloppily written on it in white paint. The mysterious
nature of the name has always piqued my interest. Most often it’s the little
things or markers we leave behind that last the longest. Amos Goff’s mark is
an artifact of the past, a hidden existence only recognized in this specific
place and instance.
● This is how the title of the experimental short film came to exist; Amos Goff
spelled backwards.
● The film itself is a kind of map; a survey of text, language, environments,
sounds, sights, locations, objects, and people. Focus is placed on the often
overlooked or forgotten attributes of the architecture of specific places and
instances in photos, allowing a new perspective to be revealed of the whole.
This project utilizes a collection of both familiar and esoteric images and
coordinates. By mining familial photographs, while also utilizing technology
such as Google Earth, a deconstruction of the family deer camp is presented.
● The projection surface that the looping film appears on consists of a large
brown and blue tarp with multiple tears and rips of various shapes and sizes.
Bits and pieces of the film are seen through the tarp in a distorted manner.
The audio of the piece is also heard amongst the continuous radio static, and
features the distorted sounds of an oil well pumping, along with a short,
edited excerpt of my father’s voice telling a familiar story.
● The fragmented visuals are caught on the surface of two storm windows,
which have been treated with wheatpaste and multiple targets.
● These large, suspended panels link the physical denotations of targets and
their actual use to the conceptual idea of pinpointing a modern myth.
Oftentimes the act of telling a story or recalling an instance requires several
attempts, until one’s able to hone in on the meat of the story, or the bullseye,
so to speak.
Resin Cast
● The small resin sphere in Thicket
is a cast of a wad of thistles and
cockleburs. The individual piece maintains a more personal conceptual
relationship. My uncle Dalbert would often hide cockleburs throughout the
camp as a prank on the others. There was no scarcity of cockleburs in the
fields, food plots, and treelines we navigated in Southern Illinois. Dalbert
would simply relocate them, perhaps in your cereal, on your pillow like a
mint, in your hat, or on your shower towel.
● After Dalbert passed away unexpectedly several years ago, the recurring
instances of hidden cockleburs served as a constant reminder of a man much
like a father to my own father and to myself. I still find cockleburs in my
jackets, on my shoestrings, and in my truck from time to time.
● Jim Harrison wrote once that “Death steals everything except our stories.” I
find this rather applicable.
● By casting them in resin, the cockleburs become a type of conceptual
memorial, a concretized idea of a man who moved from one mythic, unique
existence to another.
Personal Role
● In order to complete this body of work, I took on a variety of roles as an
artist. At times I act as a curator, deciding which objects and materials to
utilize. In some cases, a sculptor, wheatpasting targets or filling resin molds,
or making bootjacks. Other times I’m a poet, a writer, a storyteller, and a
publisher. When installing the work I’m an art handler, learning various
gallery and display tactics/applications to achieve my curatorial and artistic
vision. But, in the larger scope of things, I’m a non-disciplinary artist, a jack
of all trades willing to utilize a variety of methods and means that will best
serve my concepts.
Audience
● My intended audience is the urban viewer, the art instructor, or the
gallery/museum goer. It’s not my goal to educate anyone on any given topic
or to change anybody’s mind, but rather to offer up a glimpse into a different
world, a unique perspective not presented in the art institution or the gallery.
In telling my own story, I hope to facilitate a space of open dialogue with
audience members, where their stories are shared and brought to life by
association. In the endless expanse of memory, remembering, storytelling,
and culture, audience connections and interactions are nearly unavoidable.
Shifts From Proposal
● In the proposal stage of my thesis project, I originally set out to create
several varied installations that would eventually culminate in one final
piece, along with a publication. Due to the various obstacles that presented
themselves throughout the year, I found myself reshifting my focus to one
single installation and a specific series of objects.
● Some of the components of the installation were already clear in my mind,
such as the presence of bootjacks, gravel, and radios, while others were born
out of necessity, research, or just daydreaming in my studio. Being back in
the Midwest over the summer also allowed me to write, gather my thoughts,
and sketch out several installation configurations.
● Deciding on the number of objects, their display tactics, and their
arrangement/configuration was reliant on both physical and conceptual
aspects. For instance, the smaller, more readily available objects such as
radios, gravel, and bootjacks allowed for large numbers to be made and
acquired. While others, such as the tarp and the target panels maintain more
relevance in their solitude and size.
● Realizing and finalizing the publication was also a task that occurred over
the course of this semester in an Artist Publication course. Although I had
plenty of writing and ideas on the content of the book, I spent much of my
time editing, formatting, and deciding on the physical appearance and
quality of the publication.
● Although it was unclear to me when I proposed, I was initially interested in
the idea of utilizing projection in the work, but was unsure of the actual
content. Luckily, a project from a class I took this semester allowed me the
proper headspace and platform to create the experimental short film thats
included in Thicket
.
Research & Influences
● The collection of sources I’m researching encourages the further
consideration of how words and their associations live on a page to generate
meaning or interpretation, offering audiences and readers a glimpse into the
folkways of the United States that are a part of my identity as an artist.
● A variety of artists, theorists, authors, and poets including Josh Minkus,
Marcel Broodthaers, CA Conrad, Frank Stanford, and Simon J. Bronner
allow me to consider the various ways in which objects, gestures, and text
can convey ideas or narratives in various combinations, while also being
informed by a consistent research-based practice.
● For example, a text like Daniel Lichter and David Brown’s "Rural America
in an Urban Society: Changing Spatial and Social Boundaries" provides
readers with a contemporary analysis of the often misunderstood or
misinterpreted connections between rural and urban life and culture within
the United States. The two authors identify and explain the prevalence of
rural-urban interconnection within day-to-day life, while also discussing the
sociopolitical, spatial, environmental, and symbolic commonalities that rural
and urban America maintain.
● On the other hand, projects like Eleanor Antin’s 100 boots
exemplify
successful documentation and display of a large scale work that considers
the influences of location and environment on how objects are perceived.
Through a variety of object manipulations and arrangements, Antin is able to
communicate an idea that remains consistent through all facets of the work.
● Each one of these examples, along with a multitude of others discovered in
personal research, has served as an extremely important asset of inspiration,
knowledge, and comprehension as I continued to pursue my thesis project
this past semester.
● This research has heavily shaped the vocabulary of concepts and language
that are so intertwined with my Thesis Project.
Conclusion
● Once again, I would like to thank you all for joining me online today, and
for fostering a sense of community, especially in a current state of extreme
distance and uncertainty. This year has perhaps been one of the most
surprising, enlightening, exciting, and stressful years I’ve ever experienced.
However, through the wonderful support and encouragement of my
community, I’ve been able to create a body of work I’m extremely proud of
and excited to share.
● In the future, I hope to continue writing and publishing, while also pursuing
submissions to literary magazines and experimental film festivals.
● Documentation of Thicket
can be viewed on my artist website,
muggybrew.com.
● The Cocklebur Archive
will also be available for purchase, and will
hopefully soon be available through the library here at PNCA.
● I hope you all move forward in life thinking of the ones that came before us,
in hopes that their memories, traditions, and stories are kept alive by our
words and actions.
● Thanks again! I believe it’s time for questions.
Jackson Mills Smith
Fall 2020: Thesis Defense
Bibliography
Acland, Charles R., ed. Residual Media
. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2007.
Charles Acland’s “Residual Media” offers readers a look into the history of media and
the socio-political, artistic, and economic implications that surround it. By discussing the
consequences of constantly pursuing the “new” in a hyper-capitalistic society, Acland
also studies the function of outdated or “residual” media. As technology is left behind in
pursuit of something more innovative or functional, residual media is freed from its initial
basis of functionality, allowing more experimental contexts and functions to occur.
In the scope of personal research, residual media and technology plays a large role in
rural cultural landscapes within the United States. By studying the socio-political
implications of technology accessibility in rural landscapes, larger connections between
personal work and research are identified. The use of residual media and technology as
an artistic media/material is also of great personal interest.
Benjamin, Walter . "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction." In Illuminations,
217–251.
Ed. H. Arendt. New York: Schocken, 1969 [1936].
Canadian philosopher and theorist Marshall McLuhan provides a deeper understanding of
the underpinnings of communication in "The Medium is the Message." By exploring
ideas surrounding human connection, the author offers several key insights on the role of
medium and content within communication. According to McLuhan, a message is strictly
reliant on its carrier, the medium with which it travels. Without the medium, there can be
no message. These notions are at the foundation of McLuhan's research.
The aspects being discussed within Benjamin’s text can often be translated and analyzed
within my writing and installation practices. For example, my use of found objects, the
written word, and the configurations present within my installation practice are each
applicable in their unique manners. How does my reliance on objects and language affect
the perception of concepts and ideas? McLuhan provides much information linked to this
question, and remains an important figure in the minds of many post-disciplinary,
conceptual artists.
Brautigan, Richard. Trout Fishing in America: A Novel
. London: Cape, 1970.
Richard Brautigan’s Trout Fishing in America
is a collection of experimental short stories
and poetry in the form of a novella. The work doesn’t present its readers with a clear or
concise storyline, but instead consists of a series of brief, often humorous anecdotes. The
only component of the literary work that provides any sort of cohesiveness is the use of
the phrase “Trout Fishing in America.” The phrase continuously reappears as character
names, places, the act itself, or as an adjective.
In relation to my own practice, I’m particularly interested in how myth, specific to a
place, activity, or a culture, can be manifested through experimental writing practices. By
utilizing my own lexicon of language, objects, and imagery centered around specific
activities or events within the rural United States, I’m also able to reveal a mysterious
facet of the culture I was raised in a similar way that Brautigan does in Trout Fishing in
America.
The language that Brautigan utilizes in his work often offers up entry points to
the creation of spaces and objects that live outside of the literary realm of making.
Bronner, Simon J. "The Problem of Tradition." In Following Tradition
, 9-72. University Press of
Colorado, 1998. Accessed January 29, 2020. doi:10.2307/j.ctt46nqtf.6.
In this text, ethnologist, historian, and author Simon Bronner discusses some of the key
functions of tradition in the context of the United States. This particular article belongs to
a larger publication by the author, Following Tradition
. Throughout this particular
chapter, Bronner analyzes and investigates the historical role that tradition has on culture
generation within the United States. The author argues that tradition is often problematic
to pinpoint or define because of its “conceptual softness” and multiple meanings.
This chapter of Following Tradition
is important to the research I conduct as a writer and
artist as it pertains to major concepts I’m continuously working with. By taking into
account both the history and the influence of tradition on American culture, I’m able to
further contemplate the overarching concepts of my work, while also considering how it
fits into a larger, historical/cultural context.
Conrad, C. A. A Beautiful Marsupial Afternoon: New (Soma)Tics
. Seattle: Wave Books, 2012.
C.A. Conrad’s A Beautiful Marsupial Afternoon
is a collection of poetry and short stories.
The author is able to present readers with a book structure unlike any of its counterparts
in that it seems to follow its own rules of punctuation, of order, and of structure. Conrad
has created an organizational structure of writing and reading that follows the author’s
own, ambiguous patterns. The subject matter ranges from the everyday to the
otherworldly in a variety of fashions.
This collection of experimental writing allows me to consider the way in which various
categories of writing might live together in the form of a publication. Conrad’s poems
often seem to occupy the page in a similar manner that objects may occupy a room. A
Beautiful Marsupial Afternoon
is a prime example of an author’s unique vision and how
that vision may be expressed in the form of a collection of works.
Franklin, Tom. Poachers: Stories
. Harper Collins, 1999.
Poachers
is a collection of fictional short stories by author Tom Franklin that take place
throughout the Southern United States. The subject matter within these stories is pertinent
to both the physical and the cultural landscape throughout the region. Activities and
concepts such as deer hunting, blue collar jobs, labor and leisure, tradition, storytelling,
and notions of masculinity are often brought up throughout the collection.
As a writer and artist, I often look to the work of Tom Franklin as an excellent example
of a glimpse into the mythic nature of the stories of the rural United States. Subject
matter is often ironic and humorous, but also dark and haunting at times, which I often
feel are prominent within my own work. Although I’m not much of a short story writer,
the themes and language that Franklin utilizes within this book has a significant influence
on my practice.
Harrison, Jim, and Mario Batali. A Really Big Lunch
. New York: Grove Press, 2018.
This book by Jim Harrison encapsulates a very wide variety of storytelling, ruminations
on food and cooking, hunting tales, memories of the author, and a family history rooted
in the world of outdoor sportsmanship. Harrison often writes in a very sincere manner
that deals with notions of contentment and pleasure in the little details of life.
Jim Harrison’s style of writing, although quite different from my own, offers up a way of
storytelling that’s drenched in nostalgia and rich sensationalism. The way in which the
author is able to maintain this style throughout all his work allows me to consider the way
in which my voice as a writer is illustrated within the work I create. Much of Harrison’s
subject matter feels rather relatable and appealing to my own interests as well.
It Wasn't a Dream: It Was a Flood
. Mill Mountain Press, 1974.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPS1tXOvoC8.
It Wasn't a Dream: It Was a Flood
is a 16mm short film that revolves around the life and
poetry of Frank Stanford. It was created in 1974 courtesy of Stanford’s publisher, Irv
Broughton. The twenty five minute piece allows Stanford to tell his story in an especially
disparate and abstract manner. Much like his writing, the film oscillates between the
reality of a Southern U.S. landscape and the dream world of the poet’s own mind.
This film is yet another example of Frank Stanford’s work that centers around the myth
of our own existence and memory within a specific environmental and cultural landscape.
In the same way that I often resonate with the imagery in Stanford’s writing, the imagery
and language within the film evokes several moments of recognition as well. It’s also of
personal interest to witness a writer pursuing other mediums aside from their primary
practice.
“Josef Strau.” Vilma Gold. Accessed November 2, 2019. http://vilmagold.com/artist/josef-strau/.
Josef Strau is a contemporary conceptual artist and writer based out of Berlin. His work
often blurs the boundaries that exist between the literary world and the art world. The
fictional nature of the artist’s words and language choices are directly outlined by the
objects they point to. Strau utilizes found objects, canvases, paper, and a variety of other
commonly accumulated materials in order to redirect or even reject the viewer’s
preconceived notions of the literary narrative structure. The artist’s inventory of objects
and materials are often reused and reconfigured throughout his line of work.
This conceptual artist is of particular interest to me due to his incorporation of
experimental writing practices within the realm of art object installation. The inventory of
materials and objects he utilizes is in constant dialogue with the language at hand. As I
continue to move forward in my own practice, I aim to interrogate this aspect in a manner
that is specific to my own lexicon of objects and language.
Josh Minkus. Accessed October 9, 2019. http://joshminkus.com/.
Josh Minkus, a multidisciplinary conceptual artist based within the United States, is
continuously exploring the arbitrary tenets that revolve around poetry, sculpture, and
language/text. The artist navigates the idea of the ready-made object, the sculpted piece,
and the literary form, and often combines all three in unexpected ways. Text can often be
seen applied directly onto objects and environmental surfaces in conjunction with the
objects in the piece.
Minkus is another personal creative influence that promotes consideration of the
relationship between object and language/text. I find myself particularly interested in the
way in which the artist is able to elevate the language informing the objects within the
work by directly applying it to the object itself, or in close proximity within the space.
Khalili, Hamid Amouzad, and Rahil Khodamizabihi. “The Role of Banal Objects in
Developing the Artistic Expression of an Idea.” International Journal of Arts Theory &
History
12 (4) (2017): 12–19. doi:10.18848/2326-9952/CGP/v12i04/12-19
“The Role of Banal Objects in Developing the Artistic Expression of an Idea” by authors
Hamid Amouzad Khalili and Rahil Khodamizabihi is an article examining the role of
objects within the world of literary art, narrative and fiction. The authors develop two
main categories for objects involved within the artistic expression of an idea: the main
object and the banal object. After providing a brief historical summary of objects in
literature, Khalili and Khodamizabihi also take the time to discuss and identify several
characteristics that banal objects take on in stories and text.
Although the authors’ primary focus revolve around the role of banal objects within
literature, a majority of the claims relate to the way in which I consider objects as an
artist. The categorization of objects that’s discussed in this article raises several questions
and could even be applied to the methodology I utilize.
Kuic, Vukan. "Work, Leisure and Culture." The Review of Politics
43, no. 3 (1981): 436-65.
Accessed February 2, 2020. www.jstor.org/stable/1406943.
This article by Vukan Kuic identifies and examines the relationship that exists between
work, leisure, and culture throughout the history of Western Civilization. The author
argues against the idea that leisure is the main generator of culture. Alternatively, Kuic
argues that leisure is rather an outcome of culture, which is inherently reliant on work
activities. This idea dismisses the notion of an elitist “leisure class” and redirects cultural
responsibility to the workers of the world. These points are continuously supported by a
variety of scholarly articles, philosophy essays, and historical/real world examples.
Throughout my process as an artist and writer, I’m consistently researching,
investigating, and representing notions of leisure and labor, and how these exist within a
particular cultural landscape of rural America. I often find myself questioning the
division of leisurely activities and labor, and attempting to represent the often inseparable
pretenses that surround each one. Kuic is able to pinpoint and explain some of these key
components within the above mentioned text.
Lichter, Daniel T., and David L. Brown. "Rural America in an Urban Society: Changing
Spatial and Social Boundaries." Annual Review of Sociology
37 (2011): 565-92. Accessed
January 30, 2020. www.jstor.org/stable/41288622.
"Rural America in an Urban Society: Changing Spatial and Social Boundaries" is an
article by Daniel Lichter and David Brown that provides readers with a contemporary
analysis of the often misunderstood or misinterpreted connections between rural and
urban life and culture within the United States. The two authors identify and explain the
prevalence of rural-urban interconnection within day-to-day life, while also discussing
the sociopolitical, spatial, environmental, and symbolic commonalities that rural and
urban America maintain. These are contrary to previous historical perceptions of the
large divide between the two cultures.
The frame of reference I utilize within my artistic process is most often dealing with
culturally and geographically rural landscapes within the United States. This article
allows me to further consider the crossover that exists between rural and urban life in a
time of modern technology and late capitalism. I often find myself questioning the
carrying on of traditional rural activities in a time where everything can be bought or sold
rather easily. Along with this, I’m also interested in what aspects of these activities are
maintained or discarded with the availability of certain modern technologies. These
concepts are greatly influenced and informed by the crossover of urban and rural living as
discussed within the article by Lichter and Brown.
“Marcel Broodthaers: A Retrospective.” The Museum of Modern Art. MoMA. Accessed
September 29, 2019. https://www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/1542.
Marcel Broodthaers, a postdisciplinary artist initially working within the field of poetry,
transitioned into the three dimensional realm of conceptual art in the later years of his
life. Broodthaers was particularly interested in the use of three dimensional objects as a
way to embed language within the material world. The artist’s sculptural installations are
rich in object-language metaphors and often humorous or witty cultural references.
I’m interested in the way that Broodthaers is able to create his object poems through the
arrangement and creation of hyper-specific objects placed in vague proximity to one
another. Audience members may arrive at various conclusions or embedded meanings,
however, the references that these objects make to the everyday, to life, or to a specific
narrative or poem, are nearly unavoidable. By utilizing, arranging, and manipulating
objects that are seen and used on a daily basis outside the context of the art world, I’m
also able to pinpoint certain instances or poetic situations that often occur within my
creative writing practice. Through the juxtaposition of the ordinary, the poetic, and by
making the explicit implicit, artists like Broodthaers and myself are able to test the
limitations of language by pushing it beyond the book or the page.
Mike Calway-Fagen https://mikecalway-fagen.com/
Mike Calway-Fagen is a multimedia artist whose work often ranges from performance,
installation, and sculpture. The artist often utilizes found and gathered objects in their
work in order to serve their various concepts or ideas. Work often revolves around the
myth of creative problem solving. Calway-Fagen is more interested in what he calls
“creative problem making.” By creating a work that poses questions rather than answers
them, the artist is encouraging audiences to consider what lies beyond the work they’re
presented with.
Calway-Fagen is of interest to me in the way he often utilizes materials referencial to the
natural world. The artist is investigating the various manners in which concepts and ideas
are conveyed through human interaction within the natural landscape in several of his
pieces. Calway-Fagen seems to be generating a sense of myth which often surrounds
individual pieces or installations. I’m particularly interested in how the author poses new
questions on the subject from within the work itself.
O'Connor, Flannery. A Good Man Is Hard to Find: And Other Stories
. Boston: Mariner Books,
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2019.
Flannery O’Connor was an author from Georgia who wrote a range of fictional short
stories and novels throughout the late 1940s and early 1960s. Many of her stories take
place in a world that she knew rather well; the Southern United States. Much of her
writing has a dark sardonic tone and often deals with questions of morality. O’Connor’s
“A Good Man Is Hard to Find” is one of her most popular short stories.
Flannery O’Connor is an author who’s capitalizing on the haunting, backwards qualities
of rural America that many people have come to know. I’m concerned with how the
author may have visualized her own mythic qualities of the cultural landscape she was
raised in. Although her styles and tone are quite varied, O’Connor is yet another southern
writer that provides some insight into artistic and literary interpretations of the rural
United States.
“100 Boots by Eleanor Antin.” The Museum of Modern Art. Accessed January 26, 2020.
https://www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/2540.
Eleanor Antin’s “100 Boots” is a mail art piece that documents the “journey” of 100 pairs
of black rubber boots from New York to California. The boots are staged in a variety of
positions and scenarios before being photographed and made into postcards for audience
members.
In relation to the work I’m pursuing, the way in which Antin both arranges and
communicates objects within her practice is of great intrigue. The artist is able to
successfully document and display her work on a very large scale while also considering
the influences of location and environment on how objects are perceived. Through a
variety of object manipulations and arrangements, Antin is able to communicate an idea
that remains consistent through all facets of the work.
Portelli, Alessandro. “What Makes Oral History Different.” The Oral History Reader
, 2009,
32–42. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230101395_2.
Portelli’s “What Makes Oral History Different” identifies some of the key components
that oral histories present to the world. By articulating oral history’s relation to text,
memory, events, narrative, and social structures, the author provides readers with an
overarching analysis of oral history’s role in society.
This source provides a context and vocabulary that allows me to speak about and
consider the role of oral history in relation to my practice and on a personal level. Being
provided a basis of language centered around the subject, I can continue to develop my
own language around the subject and how it relates to my practice overall.
“Ritual and Controversy at Deer Camp.” Killing Tradition: Inside Hunting and Animal Rights
Controversies
, by Simon J. Bronner, The University Press of Kentucky, 2008, pp. 27–98.
This text, a chapter of a book by Simon Bronner, revolves around the act of deer hunting
within the United States. By analyzing the culture itself and the traditions that are in tact,
the author is able to present and discuss an often controversial component of rural
American life in a way that reevaluates several popular opinions about this specific
activity. Bronner is able to accomplish this by witnessing and documenting a variety of
deer camps, hunts, the places they occur in, and the people involved in these activities.
Within the above mentioned text, Bronner is representing and dissecting some of the
main facets of this cultural landscape that I experienced personally. The aspects that the
author presents in his writing is quite pertinent to personal research and making. Bronner
will continue to serve as a viable reference for the language and concepts present in my
work.
Stanford, Frank. The Battlefield Where the Moon Says I Love You
. Barrington, RI: Lost
Roads Publishers, 2000.
Frank Stanford’s The Battlefield Where the Moon Says I Love You
is a 15,283 line epic
poem that was first published in 1977 as a 542 page book. The poem is completely void
of stanzas or punctuation. The poem/book presents an often shocking and absurd
mythological world that exists within the Southern United States somewhere between
Memphis and the Mississippi Delta. The text presents a number of recurring characters,
the main one being Francis, a 12 year old caucasion boy navigating the world of the
Black, southern working class that exists within his father’s levee contracting
construction camps. The epic poem is believed to be loosely based around the author’s
own life as a boy.
This book/poem has remained important to me since I discovered several semesters ago.
Although the story is chock full of violence, destruction, manipulation, and oppression,
the author is able to paint a picture of a world saturated with myth just outside America’s
back door. I’m particularly interested in the way in which Stanford is able to allow
audience members a glimpse into a world that feels both familiar and ethereal in place
and time. I’m often attempting to accomplish a similar feat in my own writing about the
cultural landscapes I navigated as a younger person.
Tallman, Susan. “The Ethos of the Edition: The Stacks of Felix Gonzalez-Torres.” Arts
Magazine
66 (September 1991): 13–14.
http://search.ebscohost.com.libprox.pnca.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=asu&AN=5055
73639&site=ehost-live&scope=site.
This article by Susan Tallman discusses the overall practice of the Cuban-born American
conceptual artist Felix Gonzalex-Torress, while also maintaining a scope of focus on the
artist’s use of printed media and found/ephemeral materials. The author is interested in
the implications of utilizing a vocabulary of extremely mundane materials and objects as
a means of audience interaction and the embodiment of personal/emotional ideas.
Gonzales-Torress often created work with concepts related to his experience as a gay
man of Cuban heritage in the United States.
Gonzales-Torres is able to transform commodities into individualistic expressions that
often explore both extremely personal and more broad social/political topics. The
extremely simple and effective use of both printed media and found/gathered objects and
materials is of great personal interest. By assigning new and unique meaning and ideas to
extremely recognizable objects, the artist is reframing the potential capabilities of
found-object art, an important movement within the frame of my own practice.
Tate. "Joseph Beuys 1921-1986." Tate. Accessed January 2019.
https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/joseph-beuys-747.
Joseph Beuys was a German Fluxus artist who pursued a wide variety of mediums
including performance, sculpture, and installation. Much of the artist's work revolved
around the myth of his own survival during a WWII plane crash. By consistently utilizing
a recurring economy of objects, Beuys is able to generate meaning and narrative through
gestures, manipulation, and arrangement of objects and sculptures.
Beuys seems to successfully blur the lines between myth, narrative, and reality. By
studying the mechanisms the artist utilizes and the way in which he presents both his
work and himself, I’m able to gain a greater understanding of what a non-disciplinary
conceptual art practice might consist of.
“Tom Marioni: Drinking Beer with Friends Is the Highest Form of Art.” Vimeo. Smart Museum
of Art, 2012. https://vimeo.com/37981379.
This interview with Tom Marioni allows viewers insight into an ongoing project that
conceptual artist Tom Marioni has been pursuing since 1970. The event grows larger
each time it’s held, as those who bartend three times are eventual members. Marioni also
presents audience members with stand up comedy and a series of jokes. At the end of the
evening, all beer bottles are displayed in neat rows on a shelf within the space. This is
then the final form of the social sculpture.
Tom Marioni’s project has allowed me to consider aspects of leisure and labor within the
context of the art institution. I’m interested in the way that a simple action becomes an
artwork over time. Also, Marioni is working in a manner in which an act becomes a part
of a specific space. These are concepts that I consider within my own work.
