Bolivar Art Gallery
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  • SECAC Members Juried Exhibition
  • Tony M Bingham // SECAC Fellowship Award
  • Spring 2021 shows
    • MFA Thesis Shows
      • Flowers for the Saints // Amalia Galdona Broche // MFA Thesis Show
      • bad infinity // hannah smith // mfa thesis show
      • Scarcity // Frank Geiser // MFA Thesis Show
      • Self-Soothe // Chelsea Clarke // MFA Thesis Show
      • Tied to the Land // Jonathan Forrence // MFA Thesis Show
    • MFA show 2021
    • The Problem Body // Dimelza Broche
    • 2021 Digital Media Design Capstone: What Lies Here, What Lies Ahead
      • Megan Andrews
      • Ambre Armstrong
      • Mariah Beegle
      • Mya Grace Bevis
      • Dixie Browning
      • Kelsey Clark
      • John-Michael Crawford
      • Maddi Echsner
      • Angelique Embry
      • Karley French
      • Kendra Graham
      • Abby Green
      • Madison Haven
      • Kyle Israel
      • Emily Johnson
      • Cassidy Justice
      • Chevin Kennedy
      • Sammie Kiewel
      • Julia Meyer
      • Jean Carlos Pena-Lozada
      • Ashley Poore
      • Kleine Powell
      • Jordan Pullen
      • Jake Reese
      • Stuart Rice
      • Nora Smith
      • Bryce Stevenson
      • Lily Turner
      • Nicolas Volosky
    • Art Studio Senior Exhibitions
      • exit strategy // group exhibition 2021
      • smudge // Julia Andrus
      • a collective change in circumstances // hope bennett
      • Ties to Tunes // Allyson Cain
      • Identity // Margaret Dostart
        • Margaret Dostart // Sculpture
        • Margaret Dostart // Photography
        • Margaret Dostart // Screen Printing
        • Margaret Dostart // Drawing
        • Margaret Dostart // Painting
      • title to come // grace farish // bfa solo show
      • Things aren't always as they seem // Shelbey Nicole Fox
      • Psuedosovereign // Ellan Luna // bfa show
      • Rose Colored // Madison McGill
      • REASSEMBLY // Abi Peck
      • the others // terence powell
      • on the ground // reagan profit // bfa solo show
      • Sentient // Courtney Smith
      • Cities on Fire So Skate // Al Theiss
      • OH SO DUMB // Mackenzie Walden
      • Perfectly Imperfect// Mark Wynn
      • Foundations Show 2021
      • You Stole My Hat // Jenny Ustick
      • Archive of Past Shows
  • New Page
  • Home
  • SECAC Members Juried Exhibition
  • Tony M Bingham // SECAC Fellowship Award
  • Spring 2021 shows
    • MFA Thesis Shows
      • Flowers for the Saints // Amalia Galdona Broche // MFA Thesis Show
      • bad infinity // hannah smith // mfa thesis show
      • Scarcity // Frank Geiser // MFA Thesis Show
      • Self-Soothe // Chelsea Clarke // MFA Thesis Show
      • Tied to the Land // Jonathan Forrence // MFA Thesis Show
    • MFA show 2021
    • The Problem Body // Dimelza Broche
    • 2021 Digital Media Design Capstone: What Lies Here, What Lies Ahead
      • Megan Andrews
      • Ambre Armstrong
      • Mariah Beegle
      • Mya Grace Bevis
      • Dixie Browning
      • Kelsey Clark
      • John-Michael Crawford
      • Maddi Echsner
      • Angelique Embry
      • Karley French
      • Kendra Graham
      • Abby Green
      • Madison Haven
      • Kyle Israel
      • Emily Johnson
      • Cassidy Justice
      • Chevin Kennedy
      • Sammie Kiewel
      • Julia Meyer
      • Jean Carlos Pena-Lozada
      • Ashley Poore
      • Kleine Powell
      • Jordan Pullen
      • Jake Reese
      • Stuart Rice
      • Nora Smith
      • Bryce Stevenson
      • Lily Turner
      • Nicolas Volosky
    • Art Studio Senior Exhibitions
      • exit strategy // group exhibition 2021
      • smudge // Julia Andrus
      • a collective change in circumstances // hope bennett
      • Ties to Tunes // Allyson Cain
      • Identity // Margaret Dostart
        • Margaret Dostart // Sculpture
        • Margaret Dostart // Photography
        • Margaret Dostart // Screen Printing
        • Margaret Dostart // Drawing
        • Margaret Dostart // Painting
      • title to come // grace farish // bfa solo show
      • Things aren't always as they seem // Shelbey Nicole Fox
      • Psuedosovereign // Ellan Luna // bfa show
      • Rose Colored // Madison McGill
      • REASSEMBLY // Abi Peck
      • the others // terence powell
      • on the ground // reagan profit // bfa solo show
      • Sentient // Courtney Smith
      • Cities on Fire So Skate // Al Theiss
      • OH SO DUMB // Mackenzie Walden
      • Perfectly Imperfect// Mark Wynn
      • Foundations Show 2021
      • You Stole My Hat // Jenny Ustick
      • Archive of Past Shows
  • New Page

Tied to the Land

Jonathan Forrence // MFA Thesis Exhibition

Artist's Statement

"I discovered through building this body of work as a whole that I, like John Ruskin, value the handmade objects of this world. The attention to detail, picking which stave would be woven to the next, reminded me of my childhood growing up on the farm working with my hands. Unlike Ruskin I also saw the value of the machine and the industrial process and how it made life quicker, faster, and cheaper. I merged these two processes: The handmade weavings and bending of wood and the industrial strength of steel fabrication into forms that reminded me of home.
​
The forms I built came to me twisting towards the sky like the trees and plants of my father’s farm towering over me when I was a child. The trees where picker’s ladders were placed in. I felt tied to that heritage, tied to the farm, and tied to that rural community from my past. I was not alone in leaving my farming heritage or my small community in search an urban practice, many a son or daughter has picked up and moved to the city seeking a life without dirt under their fingernails. Yet they see the earth stacked in my sculpture Monuments, the familiar rows of the farms they grew up on. Rich baskets of heritage dumped out empty around them but still chained to their pasts.

I have merged steel, wood, and some supporting elements to discuss the loss of rural heritage today. I wanted to express my own guilt for leaving the family farm and abandoning that craft, but also express at the same time my incredible pride in growing up on a farm. The intersection between rigid, straight, and cold steel and the bent, woven, and twisted wood creates forms that discuss the pride and guilt I feel over leaving the communities."

-Jonathan Forrence, 2021

Picture
Picture
Jonathan Forrence, Basket, steel, woven pine, chain and cedar, 2020.

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Jonathan Torrence, Rise Work Sleep Repeat, cedar, steel, earth, hay, and twine, 2020.

Picture
Picture
Picture
Jonathan Forrence, Intersections II, steel and cedar, 2021.
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Jonathan Forrence, Tied to the Land, steel, soil, and rope, 2019.

Picture
Picture
Jonathan Forrence, In the Shade of, steel and cedar, 2021.

@neff.303
click here to view Jonathan's website
click here to see more of Jonathan's work
  • Home
  • SECAC Members Juried Exhibition
  • Tony M Bingham // SECAC Fellowship Award
  • Spring 2021 shows
    • MFA Thesis Shows
      • Flowers for the Saints // Amalia Galdona Broche // MFA Thesis Show
      • bad infinity // hannah smith // mfa thesis show
      • Scarcity // Frank Geiser // MFA Thesis Show
      • Self-Soothe // Chelsea Clarke // MFA Thesis Show
      • Tied to the Land // Jonathan Forrence // MFA Thesis Show
    • MFA show 2021
    • The Problem Body // Dimelza Broche
    • 2021 Digital Media Design Capstone: What Lies Here, What Lies Ahead
      • Megan Andrews
      • Ambre Armstrong
      • Mariah Beegle
      • Mya Grace Bevis
      • Dixie Browning
      • Kelsey Clark
      • John-Michael Crawford
      • Maddi Echsner
      • Angelique Embry
      • Karley French
      • Kendra Graham
      • Abby Green
      • Madison Haven
      • Kyle Israel
      • Emily Johnson
      • Cassidy Justice
      • Chevin Kennedy
      • Sammie Kiewel
      • Julia Meyer
      • Jean Carlos Pena-Lozada
      • Ashley Poore
      • Kleine Powell
      • Jordan Pullen
      • Jake Reese
      • Stuart Rice
      • Nora Smith
      • Bryce Stevenson
      • Lily Turner
      • Nicolas Volosky
    • Art Studio Senior Exhibitions
      • exit strategy // group exhibition 2021
      • smudge // Julia Andrus
      • a collective change in circumstances // hope bennett
      • Ties to Tunes // Allyson Cain
      • Identity // Margaret Dostart
        • Margaret Dostart // Sculpture
        • Margaret Dostart // Photography
        • Margaret Dostart // Screen Printing
        • Margaret Dostart // Drawing
        • Margaret Dostart // Painting
      • title to come // grace farish // bfa solo show
      • Things aren't always as they seem // Shelbey Nicole Fox
      • Psuedosovereign // Ellan Luna // bfa show
      • Rose Colored // Madison McGill
      • REASSEMBLY // Abi Peck
      • the others // terence powell
      • on the ground // reagan profit // bfa solo show
      • Sentient // Courtney Smith
      • Cities on Fire So Skate // Al Theiss
      • OH SO DUMB // Mackenzie Walden
      • Perfectly Imperfect// Mark Wynn
      • Foundations Show 2021
      • You Stole My Hat // Jenny Ustick
      • Archive of Past Shows
  • New Page