Discipline: Architecture – design

Kevin Benham

Discipline: Architecture – design
Region: Baton Rouge, LA
MacDowell Fellowships: 2024

Kevin Benham is trained as an architect and landscape architect. His research and work focus on landscape phenomena and the temporal qualities inherent in the discipline. To that end, he produces temporal and ephemeral installations that elucidate phenomena requiring careful observation through space and time.

At MacDowell, Benham worked with the weather, ice, and snow to create installations on site that acted as a datum to reveal changes in meteorological conditions over the course of his residency. He used an Ice Spud and Finnish Ice Saw to sever MacDowell’s fire pond (a small pond on the grounds) in half as an homage to Gordon Matta-Clark. The resulting work, Bifurcated Pond (for Gordon Matta-Clark) repeatedly froze and thawed and these changes were recorded within the piece as vestiges of subtle changes in the weather.

Made at MacDowell

Fellow Works Supported by MacDowell

MacDowell (Land Art)

Studios

Cheney

Kevin Benham worked in the Cheney studio.

Cheney Studio was given to MacDowell by Mrs. Benjamin P. Cheney and Mrs. Karl Kauffman. Like Barnard Studio, Cheney is a low, broadly massed bungalow. Sited on a steep westward slope, its porches are supported on wooden posts and fieldstone with lattices. Although it still retains its appealing character, the original design of the shingled building…

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