Works > Field Encounters

Field Encounters, 1999 – 

Field Encounters are an ongoing series of analogue photographs taken since 1999. Shown collectively at the Fruitmarket for the first time as part of What is Us and What is Earth, they record moments at which the artist meets the natural world and begins to think through how she may make art alongside it. They record moments of connection and potential between human and place.

“Ilana Halperin’s Field Encounters are a brief but comprehensive look at the artist’s collection of photographs shot over the course of 25 years and across several continents. Following her own obsession with the formation of new landmass, these photos, shot primarily with a Holga, document the various kinds of eruptions encountered by the artist on her travels. However, seeing them all together for the first time, I would say that it is the photos themselves that are erupting… as if the small plastic camera could barely contain what it saw.”
Adam Putnam, editor of Field Work: Photographs by Ilana Halperin, ASMR4 vol.9, New York