I use historical and contemporary events as source material to construct cultural landscapes in a three-dimensional format. The objective of all of my work is to understand the forces that have shaped us into who we are today. Landscapes/Culture are never singular or fixed. They are intertwined and constructed through lived experience, shaped by power, displacement, resilience, and adaptation. Insight into the people connected to them are held within and revealed in the materials, textures, forms, and color pallets.
My work confronts ownership and values as new influences and knowledge come into play on one’s life. We walk through history and live in it every day unaware that we do so, and without considering those who came before us or how it has shaped us. My work makes people see something that has always been present but to which we often have had the truth hidden or chosen to be blind to it. It elicits differing levels of emotional responses which often contradict one another and are experienced differently by each viewer depending upon one’s background, personal experiences and biases. It is an emotional and at times challenging investigation into who we are at this time and place in our collective histories and where we see ourselves in the future. The past and present are linked together by the use of objects, words, materials, and imagery. The works may reference a physical location, the history of place, a perspective, or a state of being
Ultimately, my practice is about mapping the self in relation to place—understanding identity as something continuously formed by where we are, where we have been, and where we imagine ourselves to belong.
Michael Brohman 