MEMBER SPOTLIGHT
June 26, 2023
This week we recognize Kellie Bornhoft Kellie Bornhoft, and her multimedia work exploring climate change and its effects on the natural environment.
From Here to There as Place (Readings from Alexander Wilson), 2015(above)is a single channel video recorded from the inside of a car driving on the Blue Ridge Parkway between Tennessee and North Carolina. This work layers footage taken from multiple passenger. Some of the clips are reversed and the duration is altered. During the drive the narrator reads sections from Alexander Wilson's book "The Culture of Nature" that reference the controversial construction of the road.
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Burnishings, 2018-ongoing (above) is a series of drawings made with forest fire burned bark as charcoal. The process involves visiting public lands scarred by fire and collecting small bits of charcoal. As Bornhoft travels to any public land thereafter, she identifies native species of trees and rubs the found charcoal across the paper placed up against the tree’s bark. The work is about reciprocity and touch in spaces otherwise driven by narratives of preservation and “leave no trace”. The work seeks intimacy and tangibility with the hopes of fertilizing and caring for native species in these spaces. Dust and bits of charcoal drop to the base of the tree as a sort of good-will offering. As the “public” stewarding these lands, she is curious about individual responsibility within one’s environment and rejecting estranged colonial ideologies.
Shifting Landscapes: Static Bounds (above), published in 2019, is a field guide that brings into question what it means to preserve a landscape for “the enjoyment of future generations,” when climactic forecasts predict that those generations will be fighting just to survive on this melting planet. The two notions cannot coincide in one narrative. Public lands drew Bornhoft in because of the myths imposed on them: myths of preserving an inhuman wilderness, myths of innocence in the histories of their conquering, and myths of their stability amidst a warming planet. The book accumulates field notes, images, and a de-territorialized mapping system to locate the reader within the traversed time and space.
By a Thread, 2023 (above) is a celebration of the Endangered Species Act, the most effective environmental legislation for the past 50 years. Though few animals have been delisted, most species avoided extinction because of the legal protection. This collection of drawn plants and animals depicts every species ever federally listed as endangered under the ESA that resides or resided within a 30-mile radius of my studio on the unceded territory of the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe. Viewers are invited to gently sift through and touch the banners. The accompanying guide can assist in identifying species throughout the installation. The photographs referenced for the illustrations are sourced from the Creative Commons and often taken by citizen scientists. This guide credits the source image photographers with gratitude. The ESA has a history of embracing citizen science by allowing anyone to petition to list a species to the Fish and Wildlife Service. The illustrations were returned to the Creative Commons to increase accessibility and aid further study.
Bornhoft's most recent installation titled Tremors, 2023 (below) presented six speakers buried beneath one ton of sand, which amplifies a live seismic activity. Using an open-source ObsPy code and a Max patcher, the work synthesizes local seismic data into a sound wave that spatially varies between the six speakers. Viewers are invited to traverse the mound to feel the low grumbling vibrations of magnified Earth movements. Small porcelain rocks are mixed into the locally sourced sand. Installed with the work is a two-channel video. As a chance-operation poem, words borrowed from geology texts loop on each monitor at differing speeds to create an endless cycle of combinations. The intention is to bridge one’s understanding of how their presence on this moving-shaking planet is in flux—that the ground we think is static shifts beneath our feet.
Kellie Bornhoft's (she/her) practice seeks tangible and poetic narratives needed in an ever-warming climate. Bornhoft utilizes sculpture, installation and video to delve into the whelms and quotidian experiences of our precarious times. Scientific data and news headlines do plenty to evince the state of our warming planet, but the abject realities of such facts are hard to possess. Through geological and more-than-human lenses, Bornhoft sifts through shallow dichotomies (such as natural/unnatural, here/there, or animate/inanimate.) Bornhoft is currently working in the Bay Area of California. She holds a MFA in Sculpture + Expanded Media from Ohio State University and a BFA from Watkins College of Art and Design. Bornhoft’s work has been exhibited internationally in museums, galleries and film festivals such as the Contemporary Art Museum in Raleigh, North Carolina, Kulturanker in Magdeburg, Germany, and the Athens International Film and Video Festival. Bornhoft’s work has been reviewed in many publications including Frieze Magazine, Burnaway, INDYweek and ArtsATL. www.kelliebornhoft.com
Featured images (top to bottom):©Kellie Bornhoft, From Here to There as Place (Readings from Alexander Wilson), 2015,single channel video, 4 min 31 sec; Burnishings, 2018-Ongoing, charcoal on paper, 200+ 11” x 14” drawings, dimensions variable (about 20’ x 9’ in the depicted installation); Boundless Sediments, 2020-2021, Two-Channel video, 11:53, plaster, TVs, speakers, wood, foam, and pigment; By a Thread, 2023, digital print on voile fabric, wood, 3D printed hardware; Tremors, 2023, speakers, amplifier, monitors, sand, porcelain, Python/ObsPy code, Max patcher, and cables; Portrait or Artist.
