Christopher Rodriguez has exhibited nationally and internationally and recently published his first monograph, Sublime Cultivation. Originally from New Orleans, he earned his B.Arch from Louisiana State University and then received his MFA from the School of Visual Arts. He is recently married to his wife Larissa, and lives in Brooklyn. Today we share his series Sublime Cultivation.
Sublime Cultivation
These images are from Sublime Cultivation, which explores conditions of the Sublime, or concentrated moments of rapture, and argues for a reclaimed landscape within our cynical and saturated image consuming culture. Sublime Cultivation is an umbrella under which I can question our relationships with nature that are sometimes whimsical, and often dire.
With some of the images, I am referencing 18th and 19th century concepts of the American Sublime while other images are concerned with how these historical ideas manifest themselves today, specifically via artifice and moments of human interaction.
Sublime Cultivation was made over a period of several years on road trips across the country. The images are not all directly related through place and thus, sequencing is paramount wherein interrelationships generate narratives and poetics.
I am attracted to qualities of discord in the landscape and an unsettled atmosphere. The color palette helps maintain this surreal quality, shifting the ordinary to the bizarre. Ultimately, the photographs aim to re-awaken our exhausted vision of the American Landscape.
To view more of Christopher’s work, please visit his website.