Ashley Beatty and Jeff Schofield - 2020 Summer Residents
Ashley Beatty and Jeff Schofield each hold an MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art in 2019 where they began collaborating together on sustainability issues. They also attended Ox-Bow School of Art and Artist Residency in Saugatuck, Michigan. Beatty holds a BFA from the School of the Art Institute in Chicago. Schofield holds an M.Arch. from Columbia University in New York and a BA from Washington University in St Louis. As a collaborating duo, they have exhibited at art venues in the Detroit metro area including Forum Gallery and two urban art farms: Popps Emporium and Burnside Farm. Their collaboration extends to several artist residencies, including Spruill Farm Conservation Project and The Peanut Factory, both in North Carolina. Future projects include residencies at Wave Pool in Cincinnati and art exhibitions in Detroit and Fort Wayne.
While in residence at PlySpace they investigated human transgressions of natural settings at Prairie Creek Reservoir. Potential sites for this artistic exploration comprise woods and trails as well as waterways including lakes and rivers. Using two complimentary approaches to interrogate the landscape, they explored outdoors to document specific sites of trespassing in nature, and installed artworks indoors using discarded man-made materials found in the field. Open-air artwork was conceived through walks, hikes and forms of wandering as methods for collecting and documenting the land. Landscape interventions were expressed through photography to highlight aspects of human agency, and through collection to understand natural sites as retainers of those agencies.
Beatty and Schofield collaborated with the Mid Indiana Trails at Prairie Creek Reservoir to create temporary and permanent outdoor sculptural installations. The project and self-guided outdoor tour opens on August 22nd at 2 PM.
Click here for details about the opening event on August 22nd.
Click here for the self-guided tour (plyspace.org/mint).
The stepping stones and trail markers projects will be permanently installed along Loop 1 at Prairie Creek Trails. The temporary work installed in the Maple Grove will be on view through the fall.
