Where is "the middle of nowhere?"

Where is “the middle of nowhere”?

Nowhere: a space without determinacy, a place that lacks location, a destination that is not anywhere.  The word itself is disorienting and confusing; a conundrum of opposites that are difficult to reconcile.  Where then is “the middle of nowhere” and how can we find ourselves in the centre of a place that cannot be found?  How is it possible to be in “nowhere”: to exist in space and time unrelated to place?  Why do we use the phrase “the middle of nowhere” to describe how we feel in certain locations?  Why does society (myself included) continue to look for new worlds and seemingly unexplored landscapes?  Furthermore, what is the role of photography in helping us understand our relationship to the landscape and creating a connection to the unknown?
  
These questions and the photographs in this exhibition form the bulk of my Masters of Fine Arts research.  Every corner of our world has been explored, mapped, and photographed.  With the aid of airplanes, satellites, global positioning systems, the Internet, tourists with cameras and mobile camera phones, we have virtually (if not physically) been, seen, and recorded everywhere.  And, there is no place on this earth where humans have not left their trace; through the structures we build, roads, signs, mining, and through climate change.  “Nowhere”, as an unexplored landscape where there is evidence of no one, can no longer exist.  However, the idea of nowhere reveals itself when we step outside our daily experience and come face to face with ourselves in our surroundings: an expansive void or inaccessible wild place, a seemingly deserted town, a lonely stretch of road where there appears to be no one, an empty city street when the day’s business is done.  It is in this state that we are physically, and philosophically, challenged to evaluate our relationship to the landscape.  Despite everything we know about the planet, finding ourselves in the “middle of nowhere” is the recognition that wonder, surprise, and affect are still possible.

Brandy Dahrouge
Contact: brandydahrouge@me.com