2016 - 2022 Neither Sand nor Rock Series

Neither Sand nor Rock is a series of sequential photography collages that are neither linear nor cyclical, but represent a meditation on the psychological, imaginative, and physical gaps between childhood and adulthood. Each piece mixes collages of toy building blocks at various stages of completeness or incompleteness as either Mommy's house or Daddy's house. The psyches and personalities of children are built upon the foundations of the priorities and insecurities of their parents. These priorities and insecurities are a tangled web of subjective feelings and reactions of notions of identity vis-à-vis religion, socio-economic status, gender, and countless other forces. Neither Sand nor Rock is a series focusing on the construction and deconstruction of personhood and the expectations of intersecting (and at times clashing) belief systems.



"Neither Sand nor Rock takes its name from the Christian children's Sunday School song 'The wise man built his house upon a rock.' The song is a retelling of a parable from the Bible that details a wise man building his house upon a rock foundation while a foolish one builds his on sand. In ensuing bad weather, the house on the sand is washed away while the one on rock stands firm. The story acts as a metaphor to caution and encourage readers to build their life upon the solid 'rock' of faith in God and not to be swept away by the insecurities of building life on the follies of secular culture. Wilder has created this ongoing series of photographic collages as a meditation on the psychological, imaginative, and physical gaps between childhood and adulthood. Children create elaborate rituals through play, many of them microcosms of the rituals they are exposed to by their parents and broader cultural norms. As we consider the many rituals that create a sense of home, and the harsh, sometimes seemingly bleak and inhospitable reality of our adult surroundings. The bright, seemingly hyper-solid blocks in various states of construction and deconstruction occupy a representation of either 'Mommy's house' of 'Daddy's house' for Wilder. The architectural forms float with a reimagined sense of gravity leaving us feeling a bit insecure and ungrounded. These jarring composite photographs illuminate the stark gap that can occur when the rituals of childhood are disrupted, transition, or clash with belief systems in adulthood and they ask what sorts new construction, new environments, and new foundations might be more hospitable."
-Sarah Bernhardt, Executive Director of Intersect Arts Center and curator of the exhibition Ritual, May-September, 2021

© 2025 Aaron Wilder. All rights reserved.