William Wylie, current artist-in-residence, answers questions about his work….
What is your medium?
I work with both photography and video.
What are the main concepts your work deals with?
I mainly work with the concept of Place. I am interested in how a location or
geography becomes a part of the human experience with a particular place. I have
become more and more involved in ‘communities’ of sorts such as the stone
cutters in the marble quarries in Italy or the people who live in rural areas
like along Route 36 in Kansas or out on the prairie in eastern Colorado. The
history of a communities involvement with a place has a visual aspect that I try
to reveal. Sometimes it works best with still photography and other times it
need the temporal element of video.
What does a typical day in the studio look like?
I don’t have a typical day in the studio. I work in the field to produce raw
materials of negatives or video footage. Then I either print that work (some of
my work is still made in a darkroom) or edit the video at a computer. I envy
those artists that have the discipline to go to the studio every day and work.
That is the necessary practice of being an artist and I found a way that fits my
makeup…I am working all the time, just not in the same way each day. Plus I
love being out in the light and air and moving around seeing things in the
world.
What will you be working on while a resident at ART342?
I have come to ART342 to work on a film about the Pawnee National Grasslands on
the eastern plains of Colorado. The space and light out there are amazing and I
have loved the area since the 1970s. The film is to be a documentary piece
focusing on a small rural school and in particular their football team. Because
the school is small they play a unique form of football which has only six
players on each side. The game is unique to small rural communities and is a
great microcosm of wonderful people and exciting events (Friday night games
under the lights!).
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