Martina Shenal

Secondary Nature

November 2, 2012 - January 3, 2013

The conceptual direction of my recent body of work, Secondary Nature (2012), narrows its scope to highlight aspects of human intervention relative to the landscape. As part of a larger, ongoing series entitled Borrowed Views, after the Japanese shakkei, the latter series mirrors the stylized perspective strategies used in traditional eastern landscape painting and seventeenth century Japanese garden design. In the former, vistas are overlaid to influence the way the eye perceives near, middle and far distance; in the latter, a nearby landscape monument is framed within the garden to create a meticulously constructed focal point.

I chose the title to draw parallels between the concept of differentiated natures, with references to first nature, following natural laws of instinct, and second nature, learned cultural clues and behaviors. In some sense, I am searching for an idealized landscape on these islands that is reflective of the garden: highly manipulated, tightly controlled and cultivated; offering a mediated interaction with the natural world while contextualizing it within a broader topographical and conceptual framework. Referring simultaneously to the manipulation of nature while acknowledging the inherent limitations of the monocular view through my lens, these images are rendered with the knowledge that they transform and construct their own version of reality.

ABOUT THE ARTIST: Martina Shenal is an Associate Professor of Art in the Photography division at The University of Arizona. She earned her MFA from Arizona State University and a BFA from The Ohio State University. Prior to relocating to Tucson, Shenal was an Assistant Professor of Art at the Memphis College of Art from 1998-2004. Shenal has received numerous grants and fellowships including two Professional Development Grants from the Arizona Commission on the Arts, a Visual Art Fellowship from the Tennessee Arts Commission, a Western States Art Federation/National Endowment for the Arts Regional Fellowship in New Genres, and a Contemporary Forum Artist's Materials Grant from the Phoenix Art Museum. Solo and two-person exhibitions of her work have been held at the UC Berkeley Extension Gallery, San Francisco, CA; Phoenix Center for Contemporary Art, Phoenix, AZ; Second Floor Contemporary, Memphis, TN; Arizona State University Art Museum, Matthews Center; Tower Fine Art Gallery SUNY-Brockport, NY; and the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art. Her work is included in the permanent collections of New Mexico State University Art Museum, Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, and the Center for Creative Photography, among others. Her work from Borrowed Views was published in the March 2012 issue of Fraction magazine. http://www.martinashenal.com/