Solo Exhibition
Fortitude
Exhibition Dates
Aug. 8th till Aug. 31st
Sena Clara Creston
Artist statement
Fortitude is a series of images of impromptu driftwood huts. The huts project security and fantasy, offset by precarious construction of dilapidated materials in an eroding landscape to create a sense of unease for environmental uncertainty. Fortitude displays the collective history of driftwood from familiar natural and manipulated sources, in a revolving collaboration between trees, ocean, sand, wind, weather, and strangers. Fortitude is a portmanteau of fort and attitude, and a word describing the resilience required to seek and sustain shelter and safety on this entropic planet. There is a secondary sad secret allusion to the fortitude required to keep building secure structures as they continuously get taken away. Soon after the huts get built, occupied, and enjoyed; they inevitably fall from tempestuous weather, rising tides, shifting sand, eroding coast, and the poaching of one hut’s wood for another. Fortitude displays the (un)natural and (de)constructive lives of large trees in this liminal landscape between where we were, where we are, and where we are going; inviting viewers to experience, empathize, and engage with their role in the imminent. These images of trees as (in)secure structures in a visibly deteriorating environment communicate their need to be protected to provide protection.
Fortitude is a series of images of impromptu driftwood huts. The huts project security and fantasy, offset by precarious construction of dilapidated materials in an eroding landscape to create a sense of unease for environmental uncertainty. Fortitude displays the collective history of driftwood from familiar natural and manipulated sources, in a revolving collaboration between trees, ocean, sand, wind, weather, and strangers. Fortitude is a portmanteau of fort and attitude, and a word describing the resilience required to seek and sustain shelter and safety on this entropic planet. There is a secondary sad secret allusion to the fortitude required to keep building secure structures as they continuously get taken away. Soon after the huts get built, occupied, and enjoyed; they inevitably fall from tempestuous weather, rising tides, shifting sand, eroding coast, and the poaching of one hut’s wood for another. Fortitude displays the (un)natural and (de)constructive lives of large trees in this liminal landscape between where we were, where we are, and where we are going; inviting viewers to experience, empathize, and engage with their role in the imminent. These images of trees as (in)secure structures in a visibly deteriorating environment communicate their need to be protected to provide protection.
Bio
Sena Clara Creston is an artist and educator. She learned to create personal space from repurposed material by growing up in an artist loft in New York City. Creston learned to use the power of the image while studying photography and imaging at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, where she began using immersive light installations to create the feeling of “being there”. Creston went on to study electronic arts at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, where she animated interactive art machines to reflect environmental responses to viewers’ actions. Creston moved to the California coast in 2020 to work as a photography and media arts professor, where she fell in love with the feeling of freedom inspired by the open space of the Pacific Ocean. Creston has created robotic, light based, and photographic installations for galleries, museums, and festivals, and conferences including the Borealis Festival of Light, Treefort, Tri-Cities Airport, Museum of Sonoma County, EBCH Museum, Jundt Art Museum, CoCA Seattle, The Wassaic Project, and TEDx Richland.
Sena Clara Creston is an artist and educator. She learned to create personal space from repurposed material by growing up in an artist loft in New York City. Creston learned to use the power of the image while studying photography and imaging at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, where she began using immersive light installations to create the feeling of “being there”. Creston went on to study electronic arts at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, where she animated interactive art machines to reflect environmental responses to viewers’ actions. Creston moved to the California coast in 2020 to work as a photography and media arts professor, where she fell in love with the feeling of freedom inspired by the open space of the Pacific Ocean. Creston has created robotic, light based, and photographic installations for galleries, museums, and festivals, and conferences including the Borealis Festival of Light, Treefort, Tri-Cities Airport, Museum of Sonoma County, EBCH Museum, Jundt Art Museum, CoCA Seattle, The Wassaic Project, and TEDx Richland.
