Artists Linda Ganjian, Kim Holleman, and Marie Sauvaitre use the languages of sculpture, installation, and landscape photography to represent their interpretations of tensions between the desire to settle and the impulse to move. Nomadic versus sedentary—this relationship is ancient, and remains relevant. Each of these practices points to intersections and frictions between the nomad and the settler. Holleman builds living park within a generic trailer. For Trailer Park, Holleman appropriates forms of public architecture and science to reveal and interrogate their ideal promises. She responds to investigations into 1960s utopian and research architecture, and utilitarian/utopian models, and makes a statement about current cultural conditions. Ganjian builds utopian cities on jewel case-like velvet pedestals and carpets. Ganjian’s carpets are inspired by icons from her childhood, the urban landscape surrounding her studio in Long Island City, and American popular culture. Sauvaitre’s landscape photography represents portable architectures of the Bedouins in Wadi Rum (Jordan), the same Bedouins across the border in the Negev (Israel), the marginal trailer “snow birds” of Slab City (USA) and in the Catskills (USA), as well as the last gypsies of Camargue (France). Humans are notably absent and the locations are not explicit.

Organized by Yasmeen M. Siddiqui, Associate Curator, Storefront