About this project
Between August 28 and September 7 of 2009, I walked the 82 mile distance between the two towns in Pennsylvania where I grew up, Reading and Lansdale, PA. I recorded and documented my journey through a website (http://jenniferursoart.com/WhiteSpace), video, sound, photos, drawings and a written blog (http://ws-whitespace.blogspot.com/). For the 2nd segment of this project, I will use the Kickstarter grant to purchase Final Cut Pro (i currently use iMovie, which is limited) and to subsidize my time to create a final video of this experience incorporating the footage from the trip and new animations using my drawing imagery. I will also use the grant to purchase materials to construct a model railroad of my journey that will incorporate the video in viewing stations throughout the set.
My own father has spent years creating a model set based on his upbringing in Reading and speaks of it in mythic terms of the past. The model railroad set, for him, is a re-creation of a selective memory that forces present experience to pale in comparison. In the same way that he and others construct model railroad sets to recreate the past of an idealized time or place, I will use the form to recreate my journey where I will capture present memory intermingling with the psycho-geography generated from the past. The form of the model railroad will immediately mythologize my experience—like creating a set that shows pre-industrial Pennsylvania or like in my father's case, where he is creating an imaginary city based on his memory of growing up and living in Reading, PA. For mine, I will use the imagery of my drawings and the techniques of model railroad craft to construct my path.
Ultimately, and for the third segment of this project (and not part of this portion of funding), I plan to film the path of the model railroad—again re-creating the path that I walked from Reading to Lansdale. I will complete a video using this footage, footage from the actual journey and videos and animations created after the journey for a new video piece. This new video will create multiple layers of virtual remembrance and experience by putting the viewer at different layers of distance and closeness.
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Funding Unsuccessful
This project reached the deadline without achieving its funding goal on December 30, 2009.
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Receive a yellow "banana" shirt in your size like the one I wore on my walk!
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Receive an original 5"x5" drawing inspired by my walk!
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Receive a yellow "banana" shirt in your size like the one I wore on my walk; a framed 5"x5" drawing inspired by my walk; and listed funding credit on my video
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I am originally from Reading and Lansdale, PA. I received a BFA in Art with concentrations in both painting and sculpture from Carnegie Mellon University in 1996 that included studying abroad at University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. I was also selected for summer residencies at Virginia Commonwealth University (2004) and the Taliesin Artist Residency Program (partial scholarship, 2008) and selected for Creative Capital's professional development program (2008). I have been a resident of Arizona since 1996 and live in Central Phoenix.
I have been heavily involved in the local Phoenix arts community since 2001 as a founding member of the now successful eye lounge contemporary art space; a curator of four exhibits and coordination of many others at The Icehouse arts venue; a volunteer for The Icehouse as a marketing coordinator, web designer and arts liason; and a volunteer and board member for Artlink, Inc. During this time, I also built my exhibition experience in locations such as The Icehouse, eye lounge, @Central Gallery (all Phoenix, AZ), Smack Mellon (Brooklyn, NY), The Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art (Scottsdale, AZ), Dinnerware Contemporary Arts (Tucson, AZ), Abecedarian Gallery (Denver, CO) and Durex Arte Contemporanea (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil). I am currently preparing for a solo exhibit at Durex Arte Contemporanea in Rio de Janeiro and at Perihelion Arts in Phoenix, AZ for 2010. I received the Phoenix Art Museum's Contemporary Forum Artist Materials Grant in May of 2006 and two Ted Decker Catalyst Fund grants in 2007 and 2009. I am included in the Flat Files at Pierogi Brooklyn and the Drawing Center's Viewing Program.
I continue to explore non-traditional routes to share and exhibit my work through interventions, interactive websites, blogs and podcasts.
