Nikki Reser [The Campsite]

The Campsite evokes the endurance and resilience of landscapes, and the emphermerality of occupation. Nature is a cultural construct, less a lens for understanding landsapes than a reflection of our own preoccupations.

From the hill above, the piece is visible in the middle of a field, but the path to it is obscured by the surrounding plants. As you approach, a curved path appears, leading you through the tall brush up to a doorway. The creaking of the door and the hollow sound of the threshold are the only noises.

The space is emptied of plants, stomped down by foot, except for the bed. The objects of occupation – bedposts, nightstands, vanity and mirror – are made of the site, birch tree pieces, twigs, and grass. Old bottles found buried in the woods sit atop the table; an old chair that once was used on the property sits in front. Windows, found broken and whole, hover along the site’s edge just at the height of the surrounding grasses.

This outdoor room, fundamentally unusable yet imaginatively captivating, claims the longest views of the site, near the lookout on the highest hilltop, west to the Endless Mountains. In spite of occupations and proposals, this privileged view belongs, still, again, to the woods and the meadow.

-NR