June 23 – September 1, 2023
June is photobook month at the Griffin Museum! To celebrate, we’re hosting an online exhibition of Like Dust Settling in a Dim-lit Room (Or Starless Forest) a book project by artist Jake Benzinger. jakebenzinger.com/monograph
Artist Statement
Like Dust Settling in a Dim-lit Room (Or Starless Forest) constructs a liminal world that explores the intersection of reality, dream, and memory. Through photography, this body of work functions as a mirror, a reflection of my inner psyche and an investigation of identity, relationships, the domestic, and the natural world.
This process, with its focus on the self, is rooted in an attempt to heal. The exploration of ordinary locations, places devoid of people and often characterized by the presence of flora, have functioned as a refuge in my personal life. By frequenting these places, I began to see them as sets, utilizing them to construct my visions. I imbue them with fragments of the people, places, and memories that inhabit my subconscious.
I fail to find stability in the societal constructs of home and family; so I seek to create it in the natural world. Through the dislocation of these places and the infusion of nature into the domestic, this work constructs a fleeting world that lives in ambiguity. This space is familiar yet still foreign; it is a constructed world that visualizes my deepest desires and greatest fears.
About
Jake is a photographer and book artist based in Boston, MA; he received his BFA in photography from Lesley University, College of Art and Design in Cambridge, MA. His work explores the intersection of dreamscape and reality. Through the dislocation of spaces, in both nature and the domestic, he weaves together imagery to create a world that exists in the liminal, investigating themes of duality, longing, identity, and the natural world.
Jake is currently a teaching assistant at Maine Media College and Workshops and has recently had work featured by Lenscratch and Fraction Magazine, alongside exhibiting in the greater Boston area. His most recent body of work, Like Dust Settling in a Dim-Lit Room (Or Starless Forest), was recently self-published as an edition of 50 hardcover books.
Dust Settling in a Dim-lit Room (Or Starless Forest) can be purchased at jakebenzinger.com/monograph
Perfect bound, hard cover, self-published monograph
Spring 2023
1st Edition of 50
56 pages
