Bailey C. Anderson

About Bailey C. Anderson

Poised between preservation and obliteration, ruins represent both a presence and an absence that gives rise to a range of complex and sometimes contradictory responses.

Although there is a lack of physical ruins in western culture, we do have metaphorical ruins of its historical impact and effect. The most tragic happenings, whether personal or worldly, leave deep imprints on our memories as well as their searing marks in our society's history. These imprints are almost like ghosts, or apparitions, created out of necessity to help us remember that pain is universal.

The thematic subject of art and cultural ruin provides an opportunity to engage and critically examine a historical and contemporary societal problem that affects present and future attitudes and values, and to consider how art intersects with issues of power and suffering.

This seems to be most pertinent now as for many it appears that western society has fallen into a state of ruin. We have all experienced loss in some way, loss of a loved one, a job, stability, sense of self. What do we have to leave behind from all of this?

I have been stricken by personal tragedy myself and have been exploring this topic in many different ways. It is my sense that the literal ruins of American culture exist because of ancestors of slavery, colonization and oppression and the symbolic ruins of surviving moments of unhealed violence, political turmoil, and trauma.

The importance of recognizing grief and loss in different contexts and appropriately responding to it as a culture are all topics that I explore in my current practice.