Julia Monte

Lives and works in Seattle, WA, USA

Artist statement

Britanica.com defines the phrase "communal experience" as "relating to a situation in which you are doing something with other people...the communal experience of riding on the train." There is unique contemplation that happens within vehicles. As a user of public transit, much of my time in buses and planes and trains is spent reflecting on those interiors and the structures that uphold them. Before intensely rolling and crashing my car in 2019, I thought a lot about the incubation space consisting of driver seats and passenger seats; how I would be driving alongside others, on the same route for an infinite amount of purposes, in an infinite amount of states of mind, preparing for infinite potential destinations; the commute. Anticipation occurs for me in encountering complex structures like highway overpasses intertwining, or rollercoasters and stadiums butting up alongside shared routes. The latter two environments hold people with similar purposes. All of the mentioned environments contain wild scaffolding and sprawling routes and many crossed paths. Spending a significant amount of time in both flat, vast, and busy, vertical places, has an effect on my processes of making. Sometimes I want to sit and observe for a long time–forced to– drawing intricate scapes of land or interior. Other times I primarily find objects discarded on the sides of roads and use other recycled materials to create stilted scenes and intricate works about these unfolding systems and destined...

Artwork