The Island Position

2018–2020

The photographs in the series describe commercial facades from across America that advertise not only what is for sale, but more importantly the idiosyncratic decisions of the people who work at these spaces. The final prints are placed into formica-clad float frames designed by the artist. The frames are then mounted to individual plinths that present the works at eye-level, off the walls of a gallery space. This method of presentation leads to a frenetic isolation where both the subject and the spectator—or viewer—confront one another individually. Masquerading as a typology of storefronts, the surfaces in The Island Position embody something unseen: the people who constructed them. The signage is not simply an appeal to consumption, but a typography of emotion: vulnerability, ingenuity, distress, and hope—the language of capitalism as a form of public address.