EMILY BELKNAP

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Emily Belknap is a sculptor working in a broad range of media and techniques. She received her MFA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2013 and her BFA from the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design in 2007. In her work, she examines boundaries in landscape, constructed and natural, tangible and immaterial. She works between two studios: one in her city apartment and one in her family's barn in the country. This urban/suburban/rural continuum is the location and focus of her work in landscape. Belknap’s exhibition history includes the Mary L. Nohl Fellowship exhibition in Milwaukee and the MFA Chazen Prize exhibition at the Chazen Museum of Art in Madison.

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ARTIST STATEMENT

These drawings each address property ownership and examine ways in which nature plays out in contested, boundary areas. In the series I am critical of perceptions of scarcity in the urban/ suburban landscape. I used blank backgrounds and trimmed detail to heighten the view of "green space" as scarce. In this way, these drawings are an exaggeration.

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This is a finished series from several years ago, but I am looking at the drawings with new eyes in light of current events. Although each scene shows clear evidence of being constructed by people, the people are absent. Often I would walk through environments such as these and see almost no one apart from car traffic.

 

I now wonder: with the onslaught of the pandemic, will our relationship to these semipublic places shift?

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I am including one drawing from a series I am just beginning, View from Lincoln Memorial Drive: Reflection 1. Like much of my current work, this drawing explores a disconnect between the value of natural areas and how they are experienced. In this case, depicting the scene as it looks in a car door reflection illustrates both the beauty of a scenic view and a detachment from it.