Artlink is pleased to present the solo exhibition Keep Up/Keep Out by Blake Sanders.

Please join us for the opening reception on Thursday, October 26th from 5-8 pm!

Keep Up/Keep Out

Keep Up/Keep Out are dual mantras of contemporary American life. The phrases speak to the societal expectations to aspire and consume—often beyond our means—while hoarding that acquired bounty and distrusting our neighbors. They encourage infantilism and, like pacifiers, give us comfort while threatening growth. Throughout this body of work, the neighborhood is playfully employed as a metaphor—on the local and global scale—to instead embrace a communal model centered in recognition, care, and reciprocity–puncturing the dominant narrative of scarcity and competition. It’s not about me, it’s about us. 

Much of this exhibition expresses the pride, anxiety, and comfort that family and home provides. The pandemic—paired with a new baby born weeks premature—reinforced a desire to hunker down till viral and political storms passed. At the same time, our growing family strengthened our resolve that the best way to assure happy, healthy kids is to create bonds with and promote an equitable future for neighbors, community, and society at large. I reject the trope “good fences make good neighbors”, preferring a literal and metaphorical neighborhood that respects privacy while rejecting partitions that make it easy to abstract and dehumanize the folks on the other side. The conservation employed in these projects, and throughout my work, challenges the “every person for themselves” mindset with a mindful practice that ensures there are resources for all and messes for no one in our global neighborhood.

I have gained a wry perspective on parenthood that has in turn motivated a shift in the content of my work to emphasize our culpability in consumption, illustrating the lasting impact of waste by using my children as a stand-in for humanity's impulsive nature. My creative practice has thus evolved to include greener, thriftier practices to reduce impact and to model behaviors for a more sustainable future. The pieces featuring my sons and/or strata of earth in particular reinforce the lasting consequences of following our desire to Keep Up and Keep Out.

Whether emphasizing the ecological/geological impact of waste, or the consequences of dissatisfaction and distrust, the works presented here illustrate the potential benefits of communal practice, in opposition to isolation and the rapacity of the market. If we all strive for a practice of radical earnestness, accountability, and generosity—inspired by Indigenous cultures and our indisputable interconnectedness with nature—we have the potential to achieve a sustainable American Dream free of the pressure to Keep Up or Keep Out. 

About the Artist

Blake Sanders is the Catapult Press Coordinator and an instructor at Southeast Missouri State University. He has taught art and printmaking at universities, as well as workshops at colleges and community-based art organizations around the United States. Blake is one half of Orange Barrel Industries, an artist partnership and international curatorial endeavor with his wife, Hannah March Sanders. Recent juried exhibitions include The Fierce Urgency of Now, at the Janet Turner Print Museum; International Academic Printmaking Alliance (IAPA) 3rd Printmaking Biennale, Beijing, China; 10th Douro Biennial 2020 in Douro, Portugal; and The Boston Printmakers 2019 North American Print Biennial. He has also shown in the UK, South Korea, Australia, Mexico, Spain, Estonia, and China. In 2022 Blake and Hannah have upcoming solo exhibitions at Lowe Mill in Huntsville, Alabama, and West Virginia Wesleyan College. His work supports environmental mindfulness by emphasizing the inextricable bond between people and the natural world.