Artist Statement

Video (2013)

Filmed in the Florida Keys, the Chihuahuan Desert and the German Green Belt, e-scape v explores the presence of technology in open spaces, revealing with a sense of magical realism the ways in which electronic equipment, infrastructure and refuse can alter our perceptions of the outdoors. In this series of abstract narratives, nature revives a discarded TV, then consumes it; a window on a train both divides and duplicates our view of a mountain landscape; an electric fence supplies power to electric sheep; kabuki beacons stream festive data into an otherwise stagnant swamp; and a Trojan virus, physically manifested to resemble its namesake horse, escapes into the wild. e-scape v was created with the support of Arrow Electronics and scored by the Kevin Costner Suicide Pact.

• Stephen Ausherman is an interdisciplinary artist and author whose works examine cultural imprints on otherwise natural spaces. He served as Artist-in-Residence at Bernheim Forest in 2012 and Cape Cod National Seashore in 2010. He was also the 2005 Writer-in-Residence for Bernheim Forest, Devils Tower National Monument, and Buffalo National River. He lives in (and wrote the definitive outdoor guidebooks on) Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA.

Text with images (PDF)  p. 82