Sure Horizon

Archive for September 30th, 2010

It’s impossible to predict when an artist’s life will reveal a legacy in process, where the work makes room for itself in the many canons of the world. But it is exciting when a voice starts to take roots of its own, and there is evidence of something in the process of becoming. The work of Travis Jeppesen has made traces of itself etched into something entirely new, and at the same time entirely traveled. He is often compared to Gertrude Stein, simply because of the parallels in life lived elsewhere, but also for the close attention to language.

Now based in Berlin, he moved to Europe in 2001, and found a place where the inner landscapes of language find a more significant resonance. Where the dominant language is no longer English, he finds, like she did, that there is suddenly new spaces that open. Without the ability to hear it reflected in the streets, it becomes something much more personal, and takes on another kind of weight. Having grown up in Florida, where the appeal of a five star Fort Lauderdale hotel brings guests from all over, he has become a guest in another place, and the permanence of residency is always in question.