Frances Erlandson

40 Pastorals for Fennis and Roger pairs an email exchange between a poet and an architect with a Google Map walking study of Marfa, Texas. I have attempted to create a multifaceted archive of the relationship between poet and architect, exploring themes of art making in rural landscapes, the embodiment of an artistic practice in the everyday, and the blurring of fiction and nonfiction in its documentation. Zeroing in on ritualistic living in a small space, I looked toward the work of Allan Wexler and Andrea Zittel. In terms of organizing and captioning the Google Map walking study, I was inspired by the archives of the Center for Land Use Interpretation, but wanted to introduce poetry into an objective system of organization. My sketching practice broadened into an exploration of form making, using collage as a base and allowing the drawing to define it as a structure. Similarly, the arrangement of words and images in the layout of the book became its own method of collage. I intended to take on each role of the story: the tourist, the critic, the local, the client and the designer. In order to achieve maximum freedom, I decided to use a real site, but invent every other factor. This idea was influenced by the text, “Triggering Town,” by Richard Hugo, which directs the reader to take emotional possession of a town they’ve never been to, as a writing exercise.

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