Jonas N.T. Becker

Lives and works in West Virginia, USA / Chicago, IL

Artist statement

My work explores the intersection of identity, land, and power; each project starts from a historical narrative or popularly held belief that highlights the intersection of these. I focus on specific landscapes, drawing attention to interrelated histories and human impact. My projects link rural communities with urban centers that are geographically distant but socially and economically entwined. FOR AND AGAINST THE CAMERA I use the theories and histories of the camera to inform work across mediums, including photography, film, sculpture, and performance. In addressing land through lens-based media I see parallels in the way both are treated as neutral, their symbolic layers made invisible. My projects expose these layers: I often use the camera outside its proscribed function, taking it apart or destroying it, as a way to highlight the construction of the images. For example, in my video Prodigal Sun, I point my camera directly into sun, filming my movement due west, simultaneously eroding the image while rendering the western landscape. Other projects invent new ways of working, creating photographs out of ground coal or recuperating commercial media. These methods are informed by strategies from queer theory; I use remixing, code switching, and hyperbole to question and reconfigure our understanding of place, highlighting the intersection of environmental, cultural, and economic oppression. Understanding both land and camera as encoded, my work dissects and remixes the...

Artwork