This Land

Ben Buswell

April 4, 2025-June 8, 2025

Curated by Blake Shell & Dustin Williams

Oregon Contemporary is thrilled to present Ben Buswell: This Land. The exhibition is part of Site, a series of site-specific large-scale solo exhibitions by artists of the Pacific Northwest. 

“Man should not be able to see his own face. Nothing is more terrible than that. Nature gave him the gift of being unable either to see his face or to look into his own eyes. He could only see his own face in the waters of rivers and lakes. Even the posture he had to adopt to do so was symbolic. He had to bend down, to lower himself, in order to commit the ignominy of seeing his own face. The creator of the mirror poisoned the human soul.” ― Fernando Pessoa, The Book of Disquiet: The Complete Edition

This Land presents new work by Ben Buswell which continues his inquiry into place and self, in part, as a response to the notions of both American Manifest Destiny and Exceptionalism. The centerpiece of the exhibition is an expansive floor piece, a mirrored landscape that despite its reflective surface disallows the viewer to catch sight of their own image. As in the artist’s past work, reflection, or more specifically, the denial of reflection, creates a metaphorical space questioning the relationship between location and how one sees oneself. 

Similarly, the titular photographic work in the exhibition is a visualization of data points (violence rates, income levels, federal money, etc.), collected and reimagined through simple physical acts in an effort to “see” the nation without preconceptions. For Buswell, the self is not separate from locality or the causal network of influence it inhabits, nor is it defined by them either. For him, this location/dislocation allows for a freedom to recognize the Other and thereby establish a leveling of hierarchies.

From the artist: “I want to collapse space through empathy in order to give our position in that space potential for a greater understanding, particularly in our relations with others. In turn, our perceptions become more emotional and therefore enhance our awareness. Think of it like returning the gaze of a hiker on a cliff above where you’re standing, telescoping that connectivity to close the gap between both parties so that you might then recognize yourself through the shared gaze. That displacement is expansive.”

In This Land, Buswell makes his most direct assertion that we have agency and responsibility in how we choose to interpret and manifest the self inside of the vast web of influences we inhabit. Land, as a primary cultural locator, is seen abstracted, unfocused, hostile to engaging in our drive for ownership and definition. This land is telling us to refocus and reframe our expectations as reflections of things that are not only the self.

The artist would like to thank: Patrick Collier, Dean Wiiloughby, Elliott Pearson, Alisa Wurst, Rose Brooks, Patrick Leyshock, The Industrial Arts Tool Library, Oregon Contemporary volunteers, and Petra Sairanen for their advice, assistance and continued support.

Ben Buswell (b. 1974 in Dallas, Oregon) is an artist based in Portland, Oregon. Buswell's sculptural work spans diverse media, encompassing ceramics, metals, resins, incised photographs and more. He subjects these materials to physical processes (such as scratching, piercing, melting and tearing) wherein the accumulation of small, repetitive gestures build into complex wholes. With a recent move toward a long term project located in the high desert of southeastern Oregon, Buswell’s practice continues to evolve.

Buswell is a Hallie Ford Fellow in the Visual Arts (2015), a three-time recipient of the Career Opportunity Grant from the Oregon Arts Commission and Ford Family Foundation (2011, 2014 and 2025), and was awarded an Individual Artist Fellowship from the Oregon Arts Commission (2018). Notable solo exhibitions have been presented by Oregon Center for Contemporary Art, Samuel Freeman in Los Angeles; CoCA Seattle; and in Portland, Oregon at Upfor, The Art Gym at Marylhurst University, and TILT Gallery and Project Space. Notable group exhibitions include What Needs to be Said: Hallie Ford Fellows in the Visual Arts (curated by Diana Nawi), Portland2012: A Biennial of Contemporary Art presented by Disjecta Contemporary Art Center, and the final iteration of The Oregon Biennial at the Portland Art Museum. Collections that house his work include The Portland Art Museum, The Schneider Museum of Art, Portland Community College, Western Oregon University, The University of Oregon, the Collaborative Life Sciences Building at Oregon Health and Science University, and many private collections, including that of Jan and Patricia de Bont. Buswell received his MFA from the University of Wisconsin at Madison and BFA from Oregon State University.

Blake Shell is a curator and arts administrator living in Portland, Oregon. She has worked as a curator of academic galleries and director of non-profit art organizations since 2002. As Executive and Artistic Director, Oregon Contemporary, Shell has recently curated exhibitions for artists Marcus Fischer, Willie Little, and Natalie Ball, among others. As Director for the Art Gym at Marylhurst University, she organized many solo and group exhibitions for Pacific Northwest artists, and oversaw a region-leading artist publication program. Her work has been mentioned in Artforum and Daily Serving.

This exhibition of the Site program is supported by the Henry Lea Hillman, Jr. Foundation and The Ford Family Foundation. Oregon Contemporary is supported by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, the James F. & Marion L. Miller Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Oregon Contemporary also receives support from the the City of Portland and the Oregon Arts Commission, a state agency funded by the State of Oregon and the National Endowment for the Arts. Other businesses and individuals provide additional support.