About the Installation
Site Location: Mt. Ashland
Title: Echo
#artbeyond2021
There is an echo of the forest in the fallen tree. There is an echo of the fallen tree in the plant that grows from its wasting. An echo is a wave and a reflection. A pattern that diffuses. An echo dies, giving its energy to declare and declare again. Echo’s voice was taken. To the asker she could only mimic his question, “who is there”. Who is there when the tree is felled? Who was there when the forest was new? Who will be there when the words we declare echo back to us as true?
About the Artist
Ben Buswell (b. 1974 in Dallas, Oregon) is an artist based in Portland, Oregon. Buswell’s sculptural work spans diverse media, encompassing ceramics, metals, resins, incised photographs and more. He subjects these materials to physical processes (such as scratching, piercing, melting and tearing) wherein the of accumulation small, repetitive gestures build into a complex whole.
Buswell received his MFA from the University of Wisconsin at Madison and BFA from Oregon State University. Buswell is a Hallie Ford Fellow in the Visual Arts (2015) and a two-time recipient of the Career Opportunity Grant from the Oregon Arts Commission and Ford Family Foundation (2014 and 2011). In 2018, Buswell received an Individual Artist Fellowship from the Oregon Arts Commission. In addition to Upfor, notable solo exhibitions include Samuel Freeman in Los Angeles, CoCA Seattle, The Art Gym at Marylhurst University and TILT Gallery and Project Space in Portland. His work has been included in Portland2012: A Biennial of Contemporary Art presented by Disjecta Contemporary Art Center, and The Oregon Biennial at the Portland Art Museum (2006). Collections that house his work include that of Jan and Patricia de Bont and the public collections at The Portland Art Museum, Portland Community College, Western Oregon University, The University of Oregon, and the Collaborative Life Sciences Building at Oregon Health and Science University.
Connect with the Artist
Artist Statement
More information coming soon.