Interim

Interim addresses Bendler Browning’s investigation of place, time, and home.  Philadelphia has been undergoing a dynamic cycle of decay, promise, stagnation, and incredibly explosive growth.  As she has built her personal and professional life in evolving neighborhoods near Center City Philadelphia, Bendler Browning has been continually intrigued by the intricate and dramatic histories of transitional places, and the disorienting phenomenon of witnessing such transformational change in such a relatively short time period. 

The imagery created in this work responds to digital snapshots Bendler Browning took while exploring forgotten spaces. Specific sites around Philadelphia during the time period in which this was made provided starting points and vignettes within the development of the painting. Within the brushstrokes and layers, moments and scenes also peek out and cluster: A walk through the Reading Viaduct (future Rail Park), views of an abandoned house from her kitchen window in Olde Kensington, snapshots of demolition and construction all around her home/studio base of South Kensington and Northern Liberties, and dirt from the grounds where she had hoped to build a house and studio.  All of these moments come together (and clash) through gesture, movement, and spaces which both forbid and welcome exploration.