Ann Marie Nafziger Once Removed

“Once Removed presents an artificially skewed version of the natural environment, captured in the midst of chaotic expansion and collapse. Replacing any sense of direct apprehension of the natural world in favor of a messy abundance of representations, the installation reflects the predicament of being disconnected physically from the world while being bombarded with mediated information about it. Executed on a variety of surfaces, including the gallery walls, and exploiting a range of materials and tools, the installation imagines phenomena and field samples from a constructed, one-off manifestation of a world in a state of flux.I’m interested in the desire for and perception of what we consider to be natural, in our collective sense of failure or loss in the ability to directly interact with anything wild or untamed, and in what alternative or possibility might lie within this compromised position.I try to invent landscapes that juggle ideas of the sublime pleasures of nature with ugly, weird, vulgar, or beautifully awkward evidence of humanity.”

Ann Marie Nafziger was born and raised in rural, northwest Ohio where she spent most of her childhood longing for a more urban existence. She lived and worked in the Pacific Northwest for a decade, exploring the then gritty, damp underbelly of Portland, Oregon and the iconic, natural beauty of the landscape surrounding it. She moved to Marfa, Texas in 2003 and since 2005 has divided her time between Marfa and Houston, along with her partner, Peter, and their trio of loyal cowdogs, Nadine, Lance and Starr.