︎



WALKING THE EARTH: OREGON
Permanent public video art installation at the Portland International Airport (PDX), Oregon, displayed on two digital screens, each measuring 20 x 140 feet. Duration: 60 minutes. Inauguration date: 12/1/2024. 

Inspired by the vision for the new PDX main terminal, as described by architect Sharron van der Meulen, where ‘spaces draw on the fresh feeling of walking through our region’s many parks,’ Walking the Earth: Oregon is an intimate portrait of a human figure walking through all nine ecoregions of Oregon from the Willamette Valley to the Columbia Plateau. The video consists of 54 vertical landscapes, each depicting a record of the artist walking the earth at the horizon line. Experienced in the monumental digital screens as three cycles of 18 walks each (nine per digital canvas), the nature walks begin at dawn and culminate at dusk. The ecoregions depicted are (from left to right): Near Shore, Coastal Range, Willamette Valley, Klamath Mountains, West Cascades, East Cascades, Columbia Plateau, Blue Mountains, and North Basin & Range. The artwork celebrates the magnificent natural environment and the unique regions that Oregonians and visitors worldwide enjoy. 
Walking The Earth is a life-long project that I started in Iceland in 2013 with a meditation on how ‘space’ becomes ‘place’ when imbued with our presence. It will be completed the day I cease to exist. French philosopher Michel de Carteau argued that the practice of walking is analogous to the ‘speech act’ and can also be understood to create a kind of ‘spacing’ or syntax in relation to how things are encountered. Walking and travel are described as a form of ‘enunciation’ that carries the possibility of breathing life, introducing a temporal beat or narrative. Walking the Earth: Oregon is an encounter with the natural forces that govern its wide-open spaces. Our walker explores the land, free to wander at will wherever her feet and legs might carry her, safe to saunter into the landscape unfolding before her, in command of the path she chooses, in communion with the Earth she is a part of, meandering between the mundane and the otherworldly this union of walking the Earth intimately entails. Every step is a heartbeat… is a breath of life. One imagines our walker, entwined with the land and its ecologies, if for an instant, and is happy. To create the artwork, my life and studio partner, Adam Eeuwens and I, conducted thorough research of the region, rented a camper van, and, relying on multiple maps and weather apps, traveled for a month through sun, wind, rain, and snow. We traversed the state from coast to desert and mountains, performing and documenting the earth walks and engaging at a human scale with Oregon’s diverse ecologies and awe-inspiring landscapes. Meticulous editing and visual effects create an otherworldly experience as the human figure seamlessly transitions from one landscape to another. I am grateful for my very international creative team: Producer: Adam Eeuwens, Video Editor: Rahat Mahajan, India. VFX: Mohit Sebastian, Malaysia, Assistant Video Editor: Chuyu Liu, China, and Bill and Julia Wayne of Abbey Ridge Vineyard, Dundee, Oregon, for inviting us to document on their beautiful land.