A Study of Color within Stephan Sagmiller’s ‘Kikuyu, (Cenchrus Clandestinus) at Half Moon Bay Links’

Bio: Stephan Sagmiller, 42, NW Connecticut

Here, we ask the artist about the details behind a recent work.

Title of work: Kikuyu, (Cenchrus Clandestinus) at Half Moon Bay Links

Where to see it: “Lawns,” at Standard Space, in Sharon, CT through June 22.

Three words to describe this work: Intricate, ecological, vibrant

What was on your mind at the time: Looking back, I was completely consumed by California. It effortlessly contains all the tensions that underscore my work. It was the first place I’d been where everything seemed to have the potential to be photographed. It’s a charged place; you can’t simply photograph a beautiful hillside, there’s always something else going on. 

Steven B. Smith recommended I watch Chinatown by Roman Polanski. It was the right film at the right time. I remember being surprised by how current it felt. I started the project in the summer of 2016. The droughts were national news, as they were every season, but this time felt different. Locals in L.A. suburbs were spray-painting their dead lawns green or converting them to native plants. The long-rooted image of the American lawn was shifting, and a growing interest in local ecologies was taking hold. I was thinking about how all of these intricate worlds can become monuments. It was, and still is, exciting to be out there exploring with a camera.

An interesting feature that’s not immediately noticeable: It’s fun to introduce the work to new people. It’s a seemingly simple subject, but people are surprised by how layered it is. The longer they spend with it, the more it opens up. A kind of abstraction is at work, a realism through abstraction, and vice versa. You have to see it in person to understand it. The level of detail in the photographs and the shifts in scale create a heightened sense that satisfies a strong desire to connect with the world. There’s a world in lawns; a world of idealism and perfection, of chemistry, laws, and morals. I encourage people to complete the images, to compare, identify, and experiment with what’s seen.

How the work reflects your practice as a whole: Lawns reflects all of the main themes of my work: perception, ecology, philosophy, art history, and field research. Many of my projects are meditations on how we come to understand and relate to the land and its landscape through images and institutions.

One song that captures the work’s essence:  “Only Lovers Left Alive,” Jim Jaramush, SQÜRL, 2014