Cities are constantly changing and evolving, but cities themselves go nowhere. Buildings, neighborhoods, parks, and plazas come and go just as people do, while the city remains to absorb the effects. In Lewiston, Maine, the dilapidated mill buildings are a marker of the past, of the once vibrant and flourishing city. Some have been demolished, others renovated, but many remain abandoned and, in some cases, entirely untouched. A new city has gone up around them all, one with a massive basilica and a bright yellow pawn shop.
Composition 1 (Lewiston)
(30" x 80") Mixed Media - Mechanical pencil, colored pencil, pen, inkjet prints, tracing paper, Bristol paper, dry-erase marker on plexiglass.
Over the past two years, I have explored Lewiston with my camera and developed a series of images that speak to its eclectic character. My project reimagines these images through a combination of drawing and collage in order to visualize the relationship I have developed with this city and explore my own creative process more deeply. You can view the source images below:
When I began shooting, I never set out with the intention of going to a specific location; instead, I simply let my interests in the moment carry me along. Exploring the city on my own led me to places and people I would not have otherwise encountered. I used my camera to capture the locations and moments I found most interesting in order to preserve and share them. I was observing my surroundings and absorbing what I saw constantly, a process that required me to engage with the city itself, its people, and its many walks of life.
My process involves cutting individual images into distinct sections and rearranging them into a larger composition, which is then broken up into smaller sections and eventually re-assembled like a jigsaw puzzle. The pictures below give a better idea of this process:
The piece is then mounted on the wall and overlayed with a sheet of plexiglass. Viewers are encouraged to write "Lewiston" directly onto the piece, in whatever style and color they would like. In this sense, Composition 1 (Lewiston) is a living piece of work, one that embraces change and evolution, and takes on a new identity each time someone interacts with it. Just as the buildings and spaces around Lewiston adapt to the city growing around them, so too does the artwork.
"Composition 1 (Lewiston)" installed in the Bates College Museum of Art. Loose 4x6 prints of source images are displayed on the shelf below.
I hope my work provides interesting and exciting new perspectives on the city of Lewiston. This project has allowed me to explore the city that has been my home for the past four years in new ways and under new contexts; it has given me a way of expressing my experience in Lewiston with more clarity and insight.
Below are some images that were critical to the development of this project but do not appear in the final piece:
Nick Charde
Senior Thesis Project, May 2022
Bates College