Casual Reception from 5 to 7 p.m. on Feb 28
Join us!
What We Have Left: Solastalgia in Iowa City is a body of work that consists of lowrelief paper drawings and paintings, a series of pressure printed maps, a variable edition alphabet book, and a wall installation composed entirely of paper objects. Thematically, my thesis work radiates out from my lived experiences and layered memories that have accrued over a span of five decades in a place I call my home. I was born and raised in Iowa City in the neighborhood adjacent to upper City Park. I left home in 1987, returned to live here in 1995, left again in 2000, returning most recently in 2018.
Solastalgia(1) is a specific type of homesickness that people experience when they are still living in their home environment. As well-known and beloved places become altered, changes can render these environments unfamiliar. The geographic area I describe as my home includes all of the pathways and destinations that are easily experienced by walking. Moving about on foot, this place is defined by the curvilinear path of the Iowa River’s water, flowing downstream from the Iowa River Power Company Dam in Coralville to the Burlington Street Dam in Iowa City. Within these organic parameters, there is a flood plain marked by limestone bluffs, a river’s edge, a prairie restoration project, a city park with an outdoor swimming pool, a grade school, a sports arena, my childhood home, two small ponds, a performing arts auditorium, art school buildings, remnants of an oak savannah, and the state university where I now attend graduate school for the second time as I pursue an MFA in book arts. Over the past five decades, some of the features that define ‘my home’ have changed dramatically, while other aspects of ‘my home’ remain relatively stable.
(1) Albrecht, Glenn, et al. “Solastalgia: The Distress Caused by Environmental Change.” Australasian Psychiatry: Bulletin of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists, vol. 15, no. 1_suppl, 2007, pp. S95–98,
https://doi.org/10.1080/10398560701701288