Work Samples for Areca Roe

Mossy Field
3D lenticular print
45”x36”
2024

Mossy Field is part of the Botany Eyes series. This series portrays human figures wearing botanically-patterned costumes interacting with the natural world in curious and surreal ways. (The 3D effect can’t quite be replicated online, but the lenticular printing process renders them 3D when viewed in person).

Mullein

From the series Terrestrial. In these 3D lenticular images, trees and prairie plants such as Tamarack, Pin Oak, Sumac, and Milkweed interact with a background of floral-patterned fabrics and a figure. The intersection of live and patterned hints at the relationship of the domestic to the natural world, and our desire to connect with nature in a controlled way. Climate change is already shifting habitats and biomes, causing these tree species to eventually adjust and shift biomes as well. The landscape will transform, as will our relationship to it. The three-dimensional layered interaction between myself, the trees, and the floral patterned backgrounds in these images refers to these shifting relationships. (The 3D effect can’t quite be replicated online, but the lenticular printing process renders them 3D when viewed in person).

Stock Pile book
2021
Book size: 8.5” x 11”
Softcover with flaps
90 pages

I published a book of the images and video stills from my project Stock Pile. The images span from May 2020-September 2021. I’ve had a fascination with stock photography for some time, with its generic ubiquity and bland cheeriness. Stock photo sites put out briefs telling photographers what is going to be hot the next month or year, and as I perused the prompts coming out in March and April 2020, out of curiosity, I realized they synthesized certain trends in our culture and aspects of this unusual time (in their commercially-filtered way). The briefs seemed frivolous during the Covid lockdowns and events of 2020, but still managed to capture the zeitgeist.

In response, I began a weekly practice of reacting to the stock photography companies’ prompts, making quick and strange images and videos at home or close by, using what I had on hand. I take instructions from these prompts—but in a way that misunderstands them or takes them a bit too far, or too literally. In many of the images I heighten the absurdity of the prompts or pull out some fascinating aspect or phrase that I think deserves further reflection.

Confluence
Video
3:38
2024

Confluence is an experimental dance video, filmed at and around the confluence of Minneopa Creek into the Minnesota River in southern Minnesota. Minneopa translates from Dakota as “water falling twice,” and the video title, Confluence, stems from the theme of water and rivers in the area. It is part of the “Botany Eyes” series of photographs and videos.

The video was shot with a 360° camera and flattened into an ever-changing frame. This surreal dance video features the dancers interacting with the landscape in ordered but intuitive ways. Their movements hint at growth and change, and echo the rhythms of the natural world.

Choreographers/dancers: Shelby Brunsing and MiKayla Scherping

Music: The Machine in the Garden by Ben Cosgrove

Music video for Code Cyan by Christy Costello
4:02
2024

I worked collaboratively with Christy Costello and her band to create the music video. I was the cinematographer, director, and editor, while Christy chose much of the style, actors, costumes, and sets. Christy desired a retro, lively, colorful style that highlighted the inclusive message of the song. I’ve made several music videos in collaboration with musicians as it’s an exciting and dynamic medium, full of creative possibilities.