Housed in an antique map cabinet, the Museum of Reaccession collects objects that were previously a part of small museum collections. Inspired by the Wunderkammer, the ongoing project archives and celebrates museums throughout New Mexico.

Exhibition History
2015 Visualizing Albuquerque: The Art of Central New Mexico curated by Joseph Traugott, Albuquerque Museum of Art and History, Albuquerque, NM

2012 Alcove 12.5 curated by Mery Scully, New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe, NM

2012 Thinking New Mexico: A Centennial Exhibition curated by Preston Thayer, University Art Gallery New Mexico State Universtiy, Las Cruces, NM

2010 Albuquerque Now: Winter curated by Andrew Connors, Albuquerque Museum of Art and History, Albuquerque, NM 

invitation project from Personal Libraries Library

order a copy

PREFACE

Upon invitation to create a reading, I could not help but reflect on the nature of a personal library. In my youth I held a keen awareness of the power of the analog book and the importance of its collection and order. I distinctly remember a moment in my self realization where I went to my parents’ bookshelves and, having not read many of the books, selectively chose the titles that would define me. I squirreled them away to my room and carefully arranged them on my bookshelf. Their order and prominence would communicate the type of person that I had become to anyone entering the space. I intuitively acknowledged the power of the physical object, it’s design and weight, as well as the ability of their assemblage to tell its own story—presumably a story about me.

Throughout my education, I consistently found myself enthralled with collections. At one point, I was lucky enough to have a reader’s card for both the British Library and the Aby Warburg Institute in London, England. The organization of the Warburg Institute holds deep ties to the Personal Libraries Library. The collection falls under the four main categories of Image, Word, Orientation, and Action. Subject headings such as Divination fall between Mathematics and Games within the Orientation section. The relative order of the collection reflects the intellectual pursuits of Warburg himself—in a sense collection becomes a map of the individual intellect. Readers in the library are invited to cull through the inspiring connections made based on the proximity of individual books to one another.

Much the same way that I attempted to project myself onto my bookshelf as a child, the Personal Libraries Library affords its readers the opportunity to glimpse into the rich intellectual space of particularly enigmatic thinkers of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This affords us, as readers the opportunity, to engage in a quixotic mission of divining the essence of great minds through the everyday content of their shelves. Towards this end I offer a traverse of the collection that pays careful attention to the relative ties between the individual books, while imagining a time when the collections might someday be complete.

I appreciate the generosity of master Librarian Abra Ancliffe. Her invitation to attempt a remote reading has proved delightful. I further appreciate the patience of Erin and Maxwell as I pushed to complete this project amidst the completion of our new home and Maxwell’s first year of life.

Exhibition History
2014 Portland2014: A Biennial of Contemporary Art, curated by Amanda Hunt, Disjecta Contemporary Art Center, Portland, OR

Gelatin silver prints from iPad mini & iPhone 5.

Exhibition History
2016 Site Unseen 9 Site Santa Fe, Santa Fe, NM

2016 Faculty Art Exhibit, Albuquerque Academy, Albuquerque, NM 

Realized via The Institute of Marking and Measuring and The Center for Land Use Interpretation

The grid of the Rectangular Survey System is a defining feature of the landscape of the Western United States, exacting on the ground and strikingly visible from the air. The seemingly ubiquitous grid may appear at first a perfectly uniform and endless system, yet within the millions of square miles it encompasses, there are 32 distinct markers that serve as the zero- point for individual survey campaigns performed throughout the history of American expansion. These survey markers, called Initial Points, were established between the years of 1803-1881; the monument at each one marks the singular Point of Beginning from which all lands surveyed under its coordinate system are referenced. These individual surveys range in area from a few hundred square miles to hundreds of thousands of square miles engulfing multiple states. The resulting reference system is vast; with, for example, a point in northwestern North Dakota described in reference to an Initial Point in southeastern Arkansas. At its greatest reach, the terrestrial coordinate system operates at a distance of over 1,000 miles.

Exhibition History
2012-2015 National Museum of Surveying, Springfield, IL

2012  The Center for Land Use Interpretation, Los Angeles, CA 

Collaboration with Milford Nahohai
all materials sourced within 150 miles of Zuni, NM

Exhibition History
2012 Collaboration Exhibit, Idyllwild Arts, Idyllwild, CA 

Realized via The Institute of Marking and Measuring and The Center for Land Use Interpretation

These centers attest to a persistent need to find the center point of a country or continent, in order to point to "the heart," "the middle," or "the hub" of a place. Each relies on a conceit––whether in the physical act of finding a balance point or in the approximation of the shape of the Earth. The effort to name and locate a center affirms a periphery. Because of the many ways to define both the periphery and the center, and because of the gap that always remains between an idealized representation and the physical facts on the ground, any precise center point is difficult to determine definitively. It exists in many places––one of which is here, in Lebanon, Kansas.

Exhibition History
2010-2011 Mobile Traveling Exhibition, Center of Contiguous U.S. (Lebanon, KS), Population Center (Plato, MO), Center of 49 States (SD), Center of 50 States (Belle Fourche, SD) (August 8–14, 2011) 

Geographic Center of Contiguous United States, Lebanon, KS (August 14, 2010) 

The Center for Land Use Interpretation, Los Angeles, CA (October 15, 2011) 

Kanza House Historical Society, Lebanon, Kansas, August 2011 - present

Inspired by Michael’s drive to follow his calling as well as seek visual inspiration from his cultural heritage, the images explore my own culture’s drive to collect and display their own creative acts. As a memorial to Michael, the images are gifted to those participating in the opening of the exhibit in exchange for their hand written memories. Just as the images leave the gallery space, the displayed memories too will disappear by being burned in ceremony. The underlying structure of grid and process remain, to be erased when the next exhibition of art is installed.

80 framed photographs

exchanged for

80 hand-written memories

burned in ceremony

80 golden screws

in awe of Michael Kabotie

You are invited to write a message, memory, prayer, or thought relating to Michael on the piece of wood provided. In exchange for your writing, please choose a photograph to take home with you in honor of Michael.

Exhibition History
2010 20 Artists Honor Michael Kabotie, Idyllwild Arts, Idyllwild, CA

Self-portrait realized via 25 coffee cups.

Exhibition History
2008 Alumni Exhibit, Albuquerque Academy, Albuquerque, NM

Photographed in museums from throughout the West and Midwest, the series features titles from vintage advertising. 

Exhibition History
2007 Faculty Art Exhibit, Albuquerque Academy, Albuquerque, NM

Selections of early work including drawing, collaborations, installations, and print production.