EP 023: CAMILLE HOFFMAN

Image Culture

My guest is the artist Camille Hoffman. In her work Camille rethinks the narratives embedded in traditional American landscape painting. She points out the political motivations of the romantic landscape, it’s enforcement of ideas of Manifest Destiny and Western Exceptionalism, and, in doing so, she begins a conversation about the monolithic history of painting. Looking closely at this history motived Camille to focus on her materials. In addition to traditional oil paint, she uses printed matter collected from her daily life, ranging from holiday themed plastic tablecloths to discarded medical records, from plastic bags to nature calendars. The resulting works reimagine what a landscape painting can be, and point out how charged the medium has always been.

I had the chance to photograph Camille in her recent installation Rockabye My Bedrock Bones at False Flag Projects, in which she covered the exhibition space in a massive wall painting using tones derived from her own skin. You can see the photograph at our website www.williamjesslaird.com/imageculture or on Instagram @william.jess.laird or @image.culture

You can see Camille’s current show Excelsior: Ever Upward, Ever Afloat, in which she remixes the allegorical figures in the New York State Seal, now at the Queens Museum. It’ll be up through Fall 2019.

I’d like to thank Camille Hoffman, as well as False Flag Projects for hosting our talk. This show is produced by Sarah Levine and our music is by Jack + Eliza. Remember to leave a rating and review and subscribe to hear all of our episodes. Have a great week!

Find more of Camille Hoffman’s work at http://www.camillehoffman.com/

Find her show at the Queen’s Museum HERE

Camille is on Instagram @camillehoffmanstudio