Elizabeth Gerdeman

Region: Midwest

 I examine the often conflicting ways we conceive of the natural world. My approach is multidisciplinary—I work with a wide range of materials and images to create mixed-media paintings and collages, experimental videos, and installative interventions and situations.

My understanding of landscape and art is entwined in broader social makings. The cultural construction of landscape as practiced by contemporary industries is frequently interrogated in my work. An example of this is interior house paint colors with names such as Iceberg Blue or Glacier Lake. What is at stake when paint products use aspects of landscape to evoke emotional responses in consumers, stimulating us to bring romanticized notions of the natural environment into our dwellings?

My recent projects address the confines through which images are constructed and the interface between built and natural environments. My line of questioning considers how images of landscape and architecture influence the contemporary value of nature, home, and desire for control amongst perceived chaos. I ultimately ask, in what new ways are humans tied to their environment?