West by Wester

Project Statement

West by Wester I had always dreamed of moving to the West to experience and live alongside its embedded stories and myths. In this body of work, I am investigating my preconceived notions of the allure and illusion of the West. Similar to a tourist, I have been making pilgrimages to must see venues and locations, including the Grand Canyon, Las Vegas, the Hoover Dam, and others. These locations are photographed daily by visitors, seeking to capture the “spectacle” as framed through literature, photographs, and movies. This westward wandering has presented me with a more complicated and nuanced reality than I imagined.

Collaborative Two-Person Exhibition with artist Eric Wilson, West by Wester, Lionel Rombach Gallery, Tucson, AZ, (2016)

For the past two centuries, Americans have had the impulse to explore the West. What draws us Westward? What does the West bestow on its inhabitants? What is the American West now? Dustin Shores and Eric Wilson explore these questions in the exhibition West by Wester. Through different aesthetics with similar concerns, the artists present how the American West has called upon so many to explore. The artists investigate what is the West, acknowledging the past while focusing on the present.