Artist Statement

The Plain began as a way of removing distraction.
I photograph objects that catch my attention—sculptures, signs, clocks, architectural fragments, animals, maritime objects, roadside landmarks and things that have simply survived. In their original surroundings, they
are connected to a particular place and purpose. I wanted to see what happened when those surroundings disappeared.

I remove the objects from their familiar environments and place them on the same recurring landscape: dry grass beneath a gray, unsettled sky. There are no streets, buildings, crowds or conventional landmarks to explain what we are seeing. The object has to stand on its own.

On the Plain, a ship’s bell can exist beside a giant apple. A classical column can share the landscape with a horse. Fish appear where there is no water. A clock stands where there is no room. Objects that would never encounter one another in the real world become inhabitants of the same imagined place.

Scale becomes uncertain. Distance becomes uncertain. Even time becomes uncertain.

I am interested in that moment when something recognizable becomes slightly strange. I have not tried to make these objects beautiful or heroic. I have tried to give them space—to isolate them long enough that we might look at them differently.

Across the thirty-one photographs, the landscape never explains itself. It simply continues.

This is The Plain.

— Michael Domino