Dan Gilsdorf - Experimental 2006 0:39 Portland, OR

You Are Not the Only One is a video work which utilizes encountered text recorded during walks and bicycle rides through Portland, Oregon. The images in this work are comprised of works which are familiar to anyone who has spent time in an American city. There are cautions, warnings, appeals, demands, and enticements that gnaw at the corners of our attention as we navigate the American urban landscape. As a whole they create the visual din that we have learned to automatically filter from our consciousness. Yet, as individuals, we are both subject to and the subjects of their patter. These signs, placards and advertisements speak to us about us; telling stories of our desires, our trajectories, and the potential consequences of our actions. But the text does not address us collectively; its object is not “we” but “I.” To only a limited extent do I seem to be able to resist the flattery of my need for personal recognition; I generally avoid areas that are off limits, I do not stay longer than I am permitted, I buy unnecessary articles at a discounted price. And so do you. 

In January 1973 I was born into a family of doctors and scientists in the desert of northern Nevada. I moved frequently to numerous strange and disparate locations. In 1991, drawn by the promise of a dramatic landscape, I arrived in Boulder, Colorado where I attended the University of Colorado earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in sculpture. Shortly after graduation, I began assisting professional artists in the design and fabrication of the installation work. The following year I moved to Portland, Oregon where I married and set up a permanent studio.

Over the last nine years I have exhibited multimedia artwork in solo and group exhibitions in galleries around the United States, as well as sculptural work in Austria and Japan. Currently I live in Portland where I continue to create sculptures, installations, videos, as well as provide engineering and fabrication assistance to other artists internationally.