Michael McGillis
Born in Southfield, Michigan.
BFA, College for Creative Studies
Lives in Royal Oak, Michigan
In my immediate universe, the early pandemic slowly opened up a muted ‘intermission’ from daily life. And into that uncertain space was inserted, of all things, a catastrophic dam failure. With those two events unfolding simultaneously, I experienced a kind of ‘tragedy vertigo’, absorbing the immediate, visceral destruction of a familiar place, while a global tragedy raged in the background. All of it was disorienting, fascinating, and strangely invigorating, as both events invited all levels of reflection and strengthened existing friendships.
My interest has always been in landscape, human scale and our collective impact on the environment. Bearing witness to the devastation of the Edenville Dam failure, granted a chance to experience all of them at once… like a roller coaster ride through geological time, compressed into a single summer. The resulting work formed as a way to process taking in so much ‘epic’ in such a
short time.
BFA, College for Creative Studies
Lives in Royal Oak, Michigan
In my immediate universe, the early pandemic slowly opened up a muted ‘intermission’ from daily life. And into that uncertain space was inserted, of all things, a catastrophic dam failure. With those two events unfolding simultaneously, I experienced a kind of ‘tragedy vertigo’, absorbing the immediate, visceral destruction of a familiar place, while a global tragedy raged in the background. All of it was disorienting, fascinating, and strangely invigorating, as both events invited all levels of reflection and strengthened existing friendships.
My interest has always been in landscape, human scale and our collective impact on the environment. Bearing witness to the devastation of the Edenville Dam failure, granted a chance to experience all of them at once… like a roller coaster ride through geological time, compressed into a single summer. The resulting work formed as a way to process taking in so much ‘epic’ in such a
short time.
