SOLEDAD SALAMÉ |
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SOLEDAD SALAMÉ
Throughout my work I see my continuing interest in the transitory and changing world around us – in the constant movement of life. My work is heavily tied into the natural world, as I work with the evolving boundaries of small islands, the changes in water, and the always shifting geography of clouds.
I use technology to inform and aid in the development of my work. For a number of years, I have been utilizing satellite imagery from Google Earth in my projects, cutting out transparent images, rearranging them, and using them to create miniature mockups, which I then edit and photograph. This technique was used in much of my work, including the New Geographies, series.
My most recent project, Barcode, utilizes imagery that was created when I sent my photographs through a fax machine for a show by the Contemporary Museum; the resulting distortion was more appealing to me than the original imagery. The image spoke to me of digital and physical identity, as each of us has inside, in a sense, our own personal barcode.
Within the last ten years I have been interested in the metamorphoses of geography, as acted upon by rising sea levels, floods, and other natural phenomena, as I depicted in both New Geographies and my 16-foot installation, Where Do Your Live? 3000 Miles of Maryland Coastline. I study bodies of water surrounded by land, communities that will be impacted by the shifting boundary where the two meet. This interest also manifests itself in a fascination with very small islands, no more than five miles wide, and the impact that rising sea levels may have upon them. These islands represent a microcosm of the world, and they are fragile and easily susceptible to change, just waiting to disappear or be born anew.
