Caitlin Parker

Sunroom Project Space 2011
Sunroom Project Space | September 13 – October 16, 2011

Bringing together sculpture, photography and video, Caitlin Parker investigates the often tense relationship humans have with nature. Parker plays with shifts in scale and perception in her work to explore themes of anxiety, hope, growth and destruction that are manifest in our changing environment. For her multi-media project Half Life, Parker built a scale model of the southern section of Wave Hill’s Glyndor House, which contains the Sunroom Project Space, and placed it in the nearby Herbert and Hyonja Abrons Woodland from March to August 2011. Two motion-sensor cameras were fixed on the structure, recording the comings and goings of various fauna that live onsite, as well as changes to the flora over that period. Parker edited the short bursts of high-definition video into two time-lapse sequences, which are displayed with the weathered and dilapidated model, serving as a witness to the unseen changes in the landscape.

In her artistic practice, Parker sets up a scenario but then relinquishes control of the project and lets nature take over. Her work reflects the fear of catastrophic events, such as nuclear crises or global climate change. The scientific term “half-life” refers to the amount of time it takes for decaying substances to decrease by half. This process continues indefinitely and unpredictably. In this project, Parker has miniaturized the man-made edifice and acknowledges the futility of attempting to control nature. The white, pristine walls of the Sunroom interior contrast starkly with the battered and sullied model in the center of the space, giving the eerie feeling that something has gone awry. The plants and animals in the videos appear to be larger than life. As they go about their daily existence, they become a disconcerting reminder that nature endures in the absence of humans. Yet the two videos, one representing day and the other night, also speak to the constant renewal inherent in the cycles of the natural world.

Caitlin Parker received her MFA in painting from the Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts and her BA from the Slade School of Fine Art, London. She has had solo exhibitions at Michael Steinberg Fine Art, New York; Garage Gallery, Los Angeles; and Rhodes + Mann, London. In May 2011, she was part of a two-person show, Pripyat – Chernobyl, at RMZ Galerie in Frankfurt. She has been in group shows in Stuttgart, Germany; Reno, NV; Hudson, NY; and on Governors Island, NY. Parker has been awarded a Jerome Foundation Travel and Study Grant and a Bard College MFA Fellowship. She wishes to thank David Markowitz and Corinne May Botz. Visit Caitlin Parker’s website to learn more about her work.

Half Life, 2011 
Wood, dollhouse components, photographs and two time-lapse videos
Dimensions variable
Courtesy of the artist