“When left alone and unprovoked predators usually won’t attack”
(Orion Station DECOMMISSIONED)

100’x25’x20’ 

Pine, cedar shingles, nails, galvanized steel, fiberglass insulation, galvanized nuts and bolts, polyester rope, steel frame government desk, cylindrical wood fire stove, splitting axe with wedge shape head, hatchet, kerosene, 3 kerosene lanterns, coyote tails, coyote paw, mule deer skin, Coleman 2 gal. water container with spigot, construction screws, fiberglass screens, cement bricks, deer ribs, an assortment of deer, moose, cow, horse, and coyote bones, 5 gal. bucket, natural fiber rope, twine, hinges, vinyl windows, 30″ wood door, a copy of “Little Savages” coloring book, a copy of ” Ursa, Cannis, Lepus” a small full color book, a copy of “Working with Wood” a how to manual, plastic peanut butter jar, 3 gal. galvanized bucket, shovel, portable 1/2 gal water container, ball pee hammer with handmade handle carved from cedar, red bandana, green bandana, brown and tan striped handkerchief, 3 plastic funnels (2 black and one yellow), pocket knife, wood carving tools in an old soup can, goat horns, galvanized stove pipe, wooded crate, acorns, glass jars (with and without lids), bacon grease, soot,one ceramic cup, one enamel plated cup, silver fork, 2 metal pot for cooking and cleaning, one pan, one blue cooler, one red naval signal flag, one red curtain, matches (long and short), one deck of Jack Daniels playing cards, two small packs of hotel matches, hammer, misc. screws and fasteners bin, sterling silver serving tray, mirror, one concrete encrusted work boot, leather, 3 trees, nature, fire, 5 sets of keys with brass fobs and hand stamped aluminum and steel (Station Ursa (Abbie) key in the possession of Claire Barber, Station Lepus (Beth) key in possession of Paul Howe, Station Cannis (Madison) key in possession of Hugh Condrey-Bryant, Station Orion key with silver compass in possession of Samantha Persons, Station Ursa Cannis Lepus key in possession on Franconia Sulpture Park).

2014

2014 Open Studio Fellow

Artist Statement

Samantha Persons is an interdisciplinary artist, she received her MFA in Sculpture/New Media from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a BFA in Sculpture and Art History in Feminist Art and Contemporary Art Practices at the Kansas City Art Institute, as well as studying internationally at the International Ceramic Studio in Kescskemet, Hungary. Her work is heavily engaged in issues of personal autonomy and social agency, individualism, gendered space, queer theory, and materiality. She makes immersive installations that incorporate built shelters, complex written narratives, props, sound and video. Her work is dependent upon viewer interaction, and this is a source of constant investigation—how does one create immersive environments within the confines of a traditional art gallery or institutional display that subverts the usual reticence of viewers to interact? To further complicate this question, the works often address questions of agency via the guise of fictional narratives that are sometimes discovered only through the close examination of components and props within the installations.

This Project is a living installation, part treehouse, part ranger station and part fiction. It is a part of a larger project called “Outpost” which is based on an extensive queer fiction. The interior space is every changing as it ages and differing people inhabit and occupy the space.

Samantha Persons

https://samanthapersons.com/home.html

Born: Orlando, FL, USA

Resides: Houston, TX, USA

Education

MFA, University of Illinois, 2014

BFA, Kansas City Art Institute, 2009