2008
Inkjet prints/ site specific installation, New Haven, CT

The darkly tinted shards recall a Claude glass, which has been violently shattered. This Victorian optical device was used as a picturesque viewfinder, bringing harmonious composition to any view of the landscape. Here, the ambient reflection of nearby trees cast their foliage onto the painted reflection of branches, commingling to complete the image of a new and non-existent tree. A layer of fiction is seamlessly introduced into the ordinarily faithful mirrored surface. In order to capture this fleeting phenomenon, this work is finally presented as a series of photographs.

The material shifts between the shattered picture plane to which the paint adheres, and the shattered window from which the glass came. The pieces of broken glass have a history of their own: they once belonged to a building on Water St, an act of presumed vandalism left them smashed. This history connects to the broader history of New Haven and Urban Renewal, and this cities history can extend out to the history of many like cities; however, the transformation that takes place within the image condenses into a momentary fiction. This image remains in the time of allegory. The various histories of site and material provide an extension into the past. Once packed away again into its crate, the potential for intermingled images extends on into the future.
– “Glass Tree: Shift and Allegory” by Suzanne Newbury.