ITHACA, N.Y.—Where remapping the distances between art and architecture takes place, there is Dream The Combine, the Ithaca-based creative practice of Cornell University professors Jennifer Newsom and Tom Carruthers.
“There are disciplinary boundaries that usually depend upon how someone else has been raised to think about whatever it is that you do,” said Carruthers. “So, you know, to some people, what we’re doing is art, and to some people what we’re doing is architecture.”
The projects Dream The Combine pursues are broadly defined as installation art and architecture. These are site-specific pieces that usually aim to change the way people perceive a space, like their installation Clearing, which consists of carefully angled mirrors mounted onto metal poles in a field. Conflicting views of the field appear to float amidst one another. Reflections layer onto other reflections, creating collages out of the plant life and horizons of the clearing.
Both partners in life as well as work, Newsom and Carruthers’ projects have steadily garnered them awards and attention in recent years, and just earned them a major recognition. Dream The Combine is one of 63 recipients of the 2022 USA Fellowship from United States Artists. The Chicago-based arts funding organization is granting Newsom and Carruthers a cool, no-strings-attached $50,000 to support work that they recognize as creatively disruptive and…
