o f f t h e w a l l
In a celebration of nonconformity, the traditional boundaries found in a gallery are deconstructed in this installation. The viewer can touch, feel and bodily interact with abstractions floating in space. In a playful response to contemporary constructs and conventions, all of the art is literally and figuratively ‘off the wall’. All participants were encouraged to record their interaction with a passed around digital camera. Over five hundred photos were taken by the public in this maze-like setting. One hanging piece, intentionally all white prior to exhibition, was transformed as everyone added their own artistic expressions.
The many openings in the two-sided paintings were infused with beeswax to invite touch and smell. The armatures were created from chicken wire and covered with handmade Japanese paper. In one piece, titled ‘crazy quilt geography’ the language of boundaries, psychological and historical, are hand written echoing sewing stitches. The painting process was experimental and freely evolving, wherein each piece is a unique exploration.
The many openings in the two-sided paintings were infused with beeswax to invite touch and smell. The armatures were created from chicken wire and covered with handmade Japanese paper. In one piece, titled ‘crazy quilt geography’ the language of boundaries, psychological and historical, are hand written echoing sewing stitches. The painting process was experimental and freely evolving, wherein each piece is a unique exploration.
s u r f a c e t e n s i o n
Oh, the webs that we weave, all the while remaining insulated within our own little cocoons. Or the webs of interconnectivity, wherein there is a transformation, a metamorphosis, an evolution of consciousness. The push and pull of these dualities are expressed in a ten foot by ten foot installation of a tightly woven fibrous web suspending organic cocoons.
Reaching out on a diagonal, the public is invited to enter, touch and stretch into the web.
The translucent cocoons were constructed by wrapping wet handmade Japanese paper over wire armatures, creating spontaneous concavities when dry. For the illusion of life, the various sized forms are masked in places with infused bees wax, inhibiting transparency and instilling ambiguity. The web is linen thread that has been dipped in the same wet paper fiber. Strands were dipped in encaustic paints to further suggest a reality.
Standing in the web, the cocoons appear to be in different stages of metamorphosis. Questions of our own identity and how we relate within the social network come to surface.