ANNIE LEIST
Crosswalks, sidewalks, intersections, scaffolding—all are manifestations of the physical, social, and psychological architectures of urban spaces. They form a framework around, within, and through which city life and city people flow. I am fascinated by the unwritten rules of public space that maintain, sometimes miraculously, the precarious order of the metropolis and its inhabitants. City space expands and collapses; it can be shaped or distorted by those who pass through it. It hosts simultaneously, paradoxically, countless isolated individuals as well as the single surging organism of the crowd.
Art making enables me to move through public places on my own terms, a feat that often eludes me in reality, as my personal navigation is mediated by my visual impairment. I am legally blind and lack the depth perception provided by stereo vision. I do have a particular sensitivity to the unruly, deceptive, and beautiful characteristics of space and light, especially where they confront humanity and its need for orderly systems. I use painting, video, photography, and performance to re-envision these locations, to present them in a new way that highlights their ambiguity and fleeting grace, elements so often overlooked in the daily rush of human routine.