Meredith Starr

Meredith is excited to be a part of the upcoming exhibit:

American Wilderness

Art Lab Tokyo and Art Lab Akiba

Nov 21-30, 2019

The concept of “wilderness,” untamed land lacking conspicuous traces of human activity, has existed as an essential fantasy in the American psyche. True wilderness may be physically disappearing every day but that does not stop us from recrafting from scratch or redefining wilderness so that we may explore and escape.

As part of an artist exchange, five American artists from the Wayfarers collective in Brooklyn, New York create an exhibition of new works at Art Lab Tokyo. These new works developed in the US. Curated by the artists, the work explores wilderness graphically and metaphorically.

For these artists wilderness is often experienced on a journey undertaken in cars or on foot, with provisions, with maps and with guides pointing to the unknown. Expectations of grandeur and of a primal privacy are triggered. The government may have preserved these wild areas in advance for us and new encounters with plants and animals are anticipated that will become new memories and future secrets.

When we think we have finally arrived in wilderness we often trip over the leavings of another explorer. A shock (or disappointment) that we are not alone and are perhaps being watched. Or did the previous explorer perish? Alternatively, someone else’s garbage can comfort, a handhold against an abyss as we peer over the cliffs, trudge in the woods, or listen to the stars.

Hearts of Fire was recently on display at The Factory in Long Island City as part of the Burn This Exhibit. The photolithograph is a seemingly chemical fingerprint of the hormones that make us feel in love.