Alison Duncan was the featured artist in our April 2010 show.
My Non-Place series stems from my interest in and desire to travel. Being on the road, driving through the vastness of the countryside, has always been something I enjoy, and now I've found a real interest in photographing the subtle changes in the land I pass, in addition to the expansive information of the country. For many, travel is all about the destination but, for me, I always look at what is in between the here and there.
These images are shot from my moving vehicle, resulting in a blur of color and information. Time becomes a theme as well, as my layered images show the amassing of information not only in the form of time passed but in the information found in the distance; faraway buildings, faint tree outlines and miles of fencing. All of these elements result in my final abstracted photographs, and in what I am calling non-places. The non-place is something unnoticed, not particularly memorable, yet something anyone can recognize. The lack of clear-cut information and indicators of geographic location allow for my viewers to apply their own experience of travel to my photographs. The abstraction represents the hundreds of miles passed, the speed at which I move through the 'still' land, the changes over time, and finally the unclear way in which memories present themselves. My images become identifiable in the form of a feeling, even by the person who may not really see the countryside; the idea of being on the road, of passing by miles of vastness, is an experience accessible to many.
