Springing into three dimensions at the center of Topiary are seven snack peas, laid in a row upon a photograph in a magazine. For her ongoing series Seat Assignment, Nina Katchadourian obliges herself to treat the hours she spends on commercial flights as studio time: art-making is mandatory. Besides her phone camera and a couple of basic tools in her carry-on, her art supplies are limited to what she finds in the seat pocket and what the flight attendant provides, such as a straw, a napkin, or the contents of a sugar packet. Topiary finds Katchadourian making the best of a familiar circumstance: in the seasonless, indifferently lit setting of an airplane cabin, the anodyne pages of the in-flight magazine assume out-size visual importance.
Nina Katchadourian (b. 1969), Topiary, 2012, from the series Seat Assignment. Digital chromogenic print, 24 x 19 inches. Purchased on the Charina Endowment Fund; 2019.137.