“The work of Alexi Keywan can be identified through her etched silhouettes of quotidian urban scenes. This is shown to a powerful effect in her Burden series. In Burden of Hope and Burden of Desire billboards rise above the horizon and dominate the urban landscape. In both works I was interested in the way in which the addition of sound could create a sense of the street-life moving underneath the billboards. In Burden of Hope the addition of field recordings at a train station positions the billboard into a very specific urban location. Keywan’s billboard remains a strong and constant fixture as trains move beyond the perimeter platform. Similarly in Burden of Desire the billboard stays fixed while the blurred waves of traffic noise pass below it. The processing of this sound was done to complement the trails seen in Keywan’s hazy sky.”

Jay-Dea Lopez
Curator