The Situated Image

Become the beholder.

Who owns the correct eyes with which to perceive art? All vision is subject to the quirks and fallibility of biology; all that is seen, is situated. This work inverts the superiority of correctness. Each image is tuned to resolve at a precise distance for a uniquely uncorrected eye. We invite you to discard your standard crisp vision and enjoy the beholder’s eyes, whether by removing your lenses or sliding on the pair provided.

Toggle between near and far focus.

I've needed glasses since I was a kid. At night without my glasses, I’d look at the clothes draped over my chair and see a scary witch. But the blurry alphabet poster above my brother's bed always became a cowboy to protect me. This experience never left me, and directly inspired my professional work developing new vision exams and my artwork here.

Selected Works

Historic Harvard Square assembled from photographs of vehicles parked in bike lanes, reported to Bike Bureau.

Street Collages

Photographs of vehicles parked in bike lanes become portraits and places. Look closer to see each vehicle in the bike lane where it was reported.

Explore Street Collages →

A person wearing a trial lens frame, pulling focus on a Snellen-style eye chart hung on a brick wall.

Chart for the Uncorrected Eye

Printed at the standard size of a Snellen eye chart, this work reverses the usual logic of vision testing: the smallest letters become legible only through natural uncorrected refractive error or, for viewers with 20/20 vision, through the glasses included with the work. From a distance it appears black and white; taking a closer look opens up fields of color and eye-like forms.

Detail: scattered color and letterforms surfacing in the chart. Detail: an eye-like form resolving within the chart. The trial lens frame included with the work, shown empty — the lenses themselves are customized to the viewer's distance.

The glasses lenses will be customized per installation and are not shown.

Four children in a gallery with lenses mounted on wooden posts, large mosaic artworks on the walls behind them.

Seek

Children learn early that eyes come in two kinds: the good ones, and the ones that need fixing. But here these artworks are designed for the uncorrected eye, clear only to those whose uncorrected vision is blurry, while provided lenses help those with 20/20 vision have the same experience.

A hexagonal mosaic of soft pastel dots that hides an elephant, revealed when seen with a blurry eye.
tap for lens view

“African Elephant” © Shoshana Coleman.

Explore the Seek exhibit →

A self-portrait that resolves out of a hex mosaic as the eye defocuses.
20/20 "blurry" slide or tap to defocus

Ode to an Imaginary Cowboy

This self-portrait echoes the heroic cowboy from my childhood who took shape from a blurry alphabet poster when removing my glasses at bedtime. Like that memory, the portrait is best seen blurred either by removing your lenses or using the special pair provided.

Detail: the cowboy's hat and face surfacing from the hexagonal mosaic. Detail: scattered color across the red bandana and jacket in the mosaic.