Sam Contis

Overpass

published by aperture 

Now Available

Overpass is about what it means to move through the landscape. Walking along a vast network of centuries-old footpaths through the English countryside, artist Sam Contis focuses on stiles, the simple structures that offer a means of passage over walls and fences and allow public access through privately owned land. In her immersive sequences of black-and-white photographs, they become repeating sculptural forms in the landscape, invitations to free movement on one hand and a reminder of the history of enclosure on the other. Made from wood and stone, each unique, they appear as markers pointing the way forward, or decaying and half-hidden by the undergrowth. An essay by writer Daisy Hildyard contextualizes this body of work within histories of the British landscape and contemporary ecological discourses. In an age of rising nationalism and a renewed insistence on borders, Overpass invites us to reflect on how we cross boundaries, who owns space, and the ways we have shaped the natural environment and how we might shape it in the future.

Photographs by Sam Contis. Text by Daisy Hildyard. Design by Julian Bittiner.

Buy The Book

Upcoming In Los Angeles 

Exhibition 

Sam Contis and Kahlil Robert Irving

Pitch 

at Kristina Kite Gallery 

November 19, 2022 – January 21, 2023

Opening reception: 4-6PM
3PM at the gallery: Contis and Irving in conversation with 
art historian and curator Darby English.  

Book Event 

Sam Contis

book signing and conversation with the writer Geoff Dyer. 

at Artbook @ Hauser and Wirth Los Angeles Bookstore 

Sunday, November 20, 2PM