Around Crab Orchard
inharmonious balance
uncertain boundaries
a film by Sarah Kanouse
biography
Sarah Kanouse is an interdisciplinary artist examining the politics of landscape and public discourse through arts practice and writing. Her projects trace the social and material production of physical and political landscapes in order to create alternate, oppositional experiences of them. Only by looking into the spatial practices—visible and invisible—that have produced a place over time is it possible to build a politics that accounts for the thickness of social life. Her individual and collaborative creative work takes many forms, including video and audio projects, web platforms and multimedia, print materials, and group events. As a core collaborator with Compass, she worked on projects mounted at Documenta 13, the United States Social Forum (Detroit), and the Smart Museum (Chicago). Additionally, she has exhibited nationally and internationally at universities, festivals, and artist-run spaces. Sarah's critical writings have been published in the Journal of Aesthetics and Protest, Leonardo, Acme, and Art Journal, while entries on her creative work have appeared in the recent book Transmission Arts and the forthcoming Confluence: Twelve American Female Artists Navigating a 21st Landscape. An Assistant Professor of Art at the University of Iowa, she teaches courses in video/time-based media and art and ecology.