APPROACH
I mine the intersections of natural and human-created systems, navigating extreme scales to transcend wildness and cultivate our experience of landscape transformation - from the geologic to the ephemeral. My lens is dialectical and values dynamic natural forces, both constructive and destructive, as critical agents that foster resilience, dialogue, and engagement. The ceaseless transformation of earth - the making, unmaking and re-making of things - and the growing conflict between human capitalist time and earth system time fuel my desire to reveal stories and phenomena that are both revelatory and generative.
I bridge disciplines and organizational systems, particularly architecture, ecology, geology, geography, cartography, surveillance, and technology to reveal the gaps, revelations, and poetics, between science, image, experience and understanding. Media are unique, responsive, and reciprocal to concept and context, seeking form through process and durational narrative. Site-specific work is integrated, approachable, and contextual, engaging the complex interactions of formal, ecological, political, and social depths of a place over time. My work cultivates discovery and enchantment that can shape personal and collective experience.
BACKGROUND
Raised by a biologist who taught me to see deeply, my life has been driven by an endless curiosity to explore the discrepancies between what we see, comprehend, and value. I have a studio in the Good Arts building on Coast Salish ancestral lands (Seattle), working across a range of two and three dimensional media in both the public and private realm. Studio practice is foundational to my process and I have exhibited work in Seattle, Chicago, and L.A. Site-specific installations prioritize authenticity, collaboration, and seamless integration at varying scopes, scales, and budgets. Currently, I’m honored to be working with King County on large-scale, permanent artwork for the West Duwamish Wet Weather stormwater facility.
My non-linear education includes the LCC Institute for Photography (AAS), the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (BFA), Archeworks (collaborative/non-profit CoD), and the University of Pennsylvania (MLA). My academic background has been countered, and complemented, by professional work in the fields of technology, art, and landscape architecture, and my artist superpower bridges this network of knowledge, thought, craft, practice, and community.
I’ve received several grant-awards that funded a temporary park installation of a thousand digital fireflies and place-based artwork and district planning for the City of Kirkland. I have completed many projects in collaboration with design teams, municipalities, clients, and communities. I have also led numerous creative public engagement events and temporary installations.
Writing and teaching help fuel my practice and creative development. I have published articles in LA+ and Kerb interdisciplinary journals, presented at several art and design conferences, and taught a drawing workshop at the University of Washington’s College of Built Environments on the topic of “Drawing Dialectical Landscape” with record attendance by staff and students.
© Ann Marie Schneider, all rights reserved