Advanced Fiber Studio (Highlights)
An intrepid explorer of ideas, materials and processes, I seek to synthesize these explorations into something simple.
CONTENT: Content remains a moving target. I consider phenomena in experience, nature or language, principles of physics or mathematics, or my response to a particular space (ie. gallery space) or place (ie. Berlin).
MATERIALS: I prefer materials that I consider to be in-between materials: those most commonly used as a means to an end. For example: vellum (drafting film), graphite pencils, armature wire, stuffing from pillows, paper. They afford a sense of freedom, play, and directness. They are places where ideas are explored. They impose their own rules or limitations based on their individual physical properties – I find some measure of integrity in this. Furthermore, I frequently use two-dimensional materials but think about them spatially, often incorporating shadows. I play with the way different materials live, move, and cast shadows, creating lines that shift and change with light and/or shifts in the air.
PROCESS: In general, I am interested in making work that requires physicality, endurance, and discipline, and that evidences this. I seek to balance this rigor with equal parts restraint. Currently, I am taking this a step further and have adopted a three-fold approach:
1. Research: I perpetually make marks in miniature sketchbooks and study them. I repeat the same line or mark repeatedly and investigate how its character changes, what it suggests or communicates or perhaps what emotions it elicits. I am currently working on developing a vocabulary of marks at this miniature scale that I may apply on a much larger surface.
2. Rules: I develop a system or set of rules that direct how I approach applying the small-scale marks to a much larger surface.
3. Application: I take the vocabulary of marks from my miniature source and apply them on a macro-surface. Whereas the marks are intimate and controlled when they originate from my fingers and my hand on a tiny scale, they change when applied to a much larger surface. I am interested in what happens when the marks come from different places in the body. As they grow in scale, I am forced to use less of my hand and more of my wrist, then elbow then arm then shoulder torso hip, etc. As the origin of the force generating the line shifts, so to does the character of the mark. As this happens, the quality of the line evolves into something different. It changes character.