Gremlin Cache — Erika Nelson, Artist

Gremlin Cache
1973 - 2020

Wood, foam, cardboard, screen, acrylic, epoxy, found object, projection courtesy of the artist.

5’ x 3.5’ x 12’
Installation view Plains Art Museum, High Visibility Exhibition

Gremlin Cache draws from images gathered from the approximately 300 sites Nelson’ has documented during her work, through a process that takes her far from Lucas, Kansas for up to six months each year. Constructed of cardboard, foam, and memory, the fragile-seeming structure is illuminated from within by a projector with a rotating series of travel images from Erika’s many years on the road.

Through the vantage point of the backseat of the Gremlin, Gremlin Cache presents Nelson’s “wanderings through American culture, as expressed by place,” telling a personal story that, as the images and miles accrue, presents a layered consideration of how culture, history, and national identities shape these very objects – and the act of travel itself. Nelson’s piece lays bare the relationship between many of these objects and the implementation of the interstate system, with its complex rural-urban relationships. Gremlin Cache balances the transformative community collaborations that gave rise to many of these structures with an understanding that these representations offer only a partial understanding of a place or its history.