ABBY FLANAGAN
tract (tinworks) 2023
polycarbonate, locally sourced granular materials
tract (wildfire) 2023
polycarbonate, locally sourced granular materials
tract (ongoing) (15 iterations) 2023
polycarbonate, locally sourced granular materials
Flanagan’s site-responsive tract series was installed in situ in the Tinworks Art “pigbarn.” The tract series was an expanded experiment of materiality, presence, landscape, and abstraction. While making each tract, Flanagan sorted, poured, and placed granular materials inside polycarbonate panels which then settled into quiet geological patterns. Over time, the granules she poured accumulated at the bottom of the channels, building up an image that evoked sedimentation, seismographs, feathers, fish scales, and other natural rhythms and phenomena.
For tract (tinworks), Flanagan gathered materials directly from the Tinworks site, as well as materials related to prairie ecosystems such as soil, wildfire char, animal fur, and plant matter. The tracts were landscapes by other means; they translated what one sees in the immediate environment into the colors, textures, and patterns of an abstracted composition.
Fort Logan (Formerly Fort Baker) Birdhouse 2023
aluminum, orange construction mesh, steel, and concrete
Fort Logan (Formerly Fort Baker) Blockhouse (wall drawing) 2023
cattle marker
Fort Logan (Formerly Fort Baker) Birdhouse was a scaled-down replica of Fort Logan Blockhouse made into a lightweight sculpture made of blaze orange construction mesh that sat atop a 20 ft pole. The original Fort Logan was designed as a lookout tower and is currently marked as a historical landmark located eighteen miles northwest of the town of White Sulfur Springs, which is about 100 miles north of Bozeman.
Through the subtle movement and quiet sound inherent to her chosen materials, she invited participants to stand near the ghost-like suspended birdhouse to detect the movements, subverting the sensory experience of the solid walls of the original Fort Logan structure into an ‘echo,’ a new version of the Fort that incorporated the landscape into the sculpture rather than orienting the landscape as something to be viewed at a distance.
ABOUT ABBY FLANAGAN
Flanagan is an artist living and working in St. Louis, Missouri. Her work investigates the nature of perception through the techniques of drawing, sculpture, and installation. Underpinning her process is an ongoing inquiry into interconnections between the environment and the shaping of self. She completed a B.F.A. at Montana State University in 2015 followed by an MFA from the University of Texas at Austin in 2022. She has participated in artist residencies at SOMA Summer in Veracruz MX, Burren College of Art in County Clare IR, Mildred’s Lane in Narrowsburg NY, and Orein Arts in Elmira NY. Flanagan has written for arts publications including Incandescent and served as visual art co-editor for the Bat City Review. She currently teaches Painting and Drawing at Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Art at Washington University in St. Louis.
2023 Tinworks Artist Abby Flanagan. Photo by Ryan Flanagan.