Roberta Neidigh grew up on a farm in the rural Midwest. Her current work “explores the ways in which we cultivate our public and private spaces”. Her exhibition Property Line looks at the visual dialogue between two plots of suburban land: “This point of contact,
on the property line, reveals communication between neighbors through landscape as
an extension of the self. There is no margin here. Are we connected or divided by the
place our land touches the land of another? How is this line drawn? In this body of
work, I explore the way we protect our boundaries by creating a buffer in a place that
has none, and how we cling more strongly to our own identity as our space nears
its edge. “
Property Line is part of the Griffin’s Home Views exhibition. You can find Roberta’s work on the walls of our Main gallery until December 5th. We asked Roberta some questions about her inspirations and artistic processes, and here is what she had to say:
1. Tell us how you first connected to the Griffin Museum.
© Roberta Neidigh
Property Line was juried into the Brooklyn and Boston Fence exhibition Paula Tognarelli was one of the judges. I was then able to meet her in person at the Center Santa Fe portfolio review. I had been aware of the Griffin Museum but after meeting with Paula, I followed it more closely.
2. How do you involve photography in your everyday life? Can you tell us about any images or artists that have caught your attention recently?
Recently I enjoyed reading and viewing Aline Smithson’s piece in Lenscratch on Douglas Stockdale’s work, “Middle Ground”. I was taken with his ability to see something new in the landscape while he was trapped in bumper to bumper traffic.
On a daily basis I am recording, making images of what I encounter and using these studies to further understand what it is about the person, place or thing that resonates with me.
It is a daily practice.
3. Please tell us a little about your series Property Line, and how it was conceived.
© Roberta Neidigh
My interest in this project began close to my home while I was on walks. Soon I began scoping out other neighborhoods by car, and if I found an interesting pattern of expression or a sense of inherited design in the choice of house color or method of grooming the landscape, I would park and walk the streets. That is when the compositions started to reveal themselves.
These designs seem like a reflection of the owners’ identity, often in a charming or humorous way, and I began to see property lines as quiet visual punctuation between the statements made by each homeowner. I’d driven by many of these homes near my own for years, not really seeing them and their borders until I started exploring on foot. I discovered that we tend to edit out the property line when we observe suburban landscapes; we’re focused on our own space, mostly ignoring the place it intersects with another. Because of this, I’ve found great delight in discovering what goes mostly unseen despite being in plain sight.
My background in the fiber arts definitely influences how I see. The groomed, well cultivated landscapes I’m drawn to are made of careful arrangements of color, texture, and pattern. Where things get really interesting is when these patterns collide in the property line space. I think of the images as portraits — of place, community, and of the residents themselves.
The public self we project in our own property is often carefully cultivated, but we don’t spend nearly as much time considering how it touches our neighbor’s yard. We don’t really scrutinize the property line, and by giving it less consideration, we allow for unexpected — and often humorous — interactions to take place.
4. Has there been a Griffin Museum exhibition that has particularly engaged or moved you?
I would say most recently, “Spirit: Focus on Indigenous Art, Artists and Issues”, and “Balancing Cultures”, Jerry Takigawa
5. What is your favorite place to escape to?
© Roberta Neidigh
Either the California coast or my own garden, immersing myself in the open air surrounded with my favorite plants feeds my soul. In fact I’m sitting on the protected terrace now with the heater during our first major rain storm of the season. I love experiencing a good drenching rain after so much drought. The colors and textures of my cactus and succulents with the quality of light and rain is intoxicating!
6. What is a book, song or visual obsession you have at the moment?
© Roberta Neidigh
I’m very interested in how we use our own outdoor spaces, no matter how small or large. In California we are facing extreme weather conditions with drought and fires taking place. For my own space I am focusing on a hybrid type of planting, drought tolerant succulents and cacti combined with California natives. There is so much to know about the land, plants, insects and wildlife and how they are all interdependent. It keeps me intellectually stimulated while engaging in physicality. It’s a perfect marriage for me. I also use photography to help me explore this environment and all it’s magical secrets.
The work of Entomologist Doug Tallamy, “Homegrown NationalPark”, is of great interest to me. It’s an initiative to create conservation corridors that provide wildlife habitats on private property across the U.S. with a goal of 20 million acres of native planting in the U.S., which represents approximately ½ of the green lawns of privately-owned properties.
And the work of artist Fritz Haeg and his book, “Edible Estates: Attack On The Front Lawn.”
The idea of restructuring the concept of the front lawn.
