Justin C. Knapp

Kinship is a quality that I choose to isolate and praise for what it is an intimate relationship. Kinship is central to my work in which human being, nature and architecture are observed in comparison to each other, by instigating a response based on optical illusions, meditation, isolation, functionality and nostalgia. In my work the viewer is given the opportunity to see an interaction occurring between the human, nature and architecture. Humans alter nature and architecture in urban and natural environments, and architecture and nature alter humanity in the form of natural disasters. This is an analogy that motivates my work.

I see specific qualities of architecture being parallel to many of my childhood memories and upbringing. Memory is a tool that I utilize when comparing these qualities. Manmade structures such as buildings, residential housing, bridges and dams are of high interest to me for their physical qualities as well as their function within urban and natural environments. In my work the physical qualities of architecture and its functionality are paralleled with my childhood adolescence. They are presented to the viewer through drawings of my early life residences and physical structures that gesture to my memories within these spaces. I see a relationship between architecture and my childhood that is transparent. This kinship stimulates my work, bringing in the ideas of establishment, structure and foundation.