Indelible Marks goes to NYC and Massachusetts!

Over spring break, Annie took Indelible Marks to Movement Research in NYC, an important laboratory for the showing of new dance and movement-based art, and to the Green Street Studios, a center for dance in Cambridge, Mass.  Here's a link to an OSU article about the piece and its travels.  Lily and I sent our videos and my paper pieces with them, which gave me a funny sense of separation anxiety knowing that I wouldn't be there to put them up or see how they work.  In the same regard, it's also a really exciting feeling--I can't wait to hear how it went!

Video excerpts from Indelible Marks

Click here for photo stills of the performance

Click here for a video excerpt of "Trace"

Click here for a video excerpt of "Spillage"

Here are a few excerpts from the videos Lily and I made together, and a slideshow of the performative project called "Indelible Marks" that's mentioned elsewhere on the blog.  Hopefully these videos are the first of many that Lily and I make together!

Indelible Marks: Lantern Article (click here)

On Feb. 12-14, the premiere of the collaborative dance project that I worked on with Annie Kloppenberg and Lily Skove took place at OSU. It was great to see all of our hard work come together, and it was really well received. Here's a link to the article in the university paper. Frustratingly, they left out any mention of Lily, who did some of the videos on her own, and some in collaboration with me. I hope to have footage of the performance online soon.

Hand Nest

I've been studying birds, and found this amazing book about eggs and nests.  My hands were cold at the time, so I decided to make one for my hand.  It's on the ladder to the loft in my studio, and it's nice and cozy.

Drawing Stack

Over the summer I was making a lot of little drawings. These drawings were sitting in a plastic ziploc bag for several weeks. I decided to try to find some way to connect all of the drawings together into one piece. I ending up sewing them together, and this is the result. I originally had it hanging at a conventional, eye-level height, but when I brought it into the gallery, I decided to hang it very high. It was hung high enough that the only way to view it was to look at it through binoculars. I had the binoculars just hanging around--not right next to the piece--so the viewers had to want to see it closer and take the initiative to find a way. Looking through the lens becomes a moving frame, meaning that the viewer decides what part specifically he or she wants to see and moves the binoculars to frame that view. (I have to still take a photo of someone looking at it with binoculars...soon!)

Wall Stacks

I noticed earlier in the fall quarter that when people came into my studio, they were often attracted to my storage method for the paper and fragments I use in my drawings. So, I decided to see if it could actually be a piece. A lot of my recent questions have to do with how to present my work without over-utilizing my training in museum art installation. It seems like when I apply these conventions (how high to hang something, how to light it, how to label it, etc.), my work becomes static and less interesting. So, I used a lot of chance operations in hanging these. For instance, I put all the groupings of papers from the wall stacks on the ground, randomly hammered nails into the wall (pin on the donkey style), and then grabbed each group and put it on a nail. Normally I would be more compositional about it--the stacks would go from larger groups in back to smaller in front. Instead, the stacks became more interesting because you have to look from the side to see what might be underneath. I also like that there is so much hidden from our view. It reminds me of archaeology in a way; we can't know all of the treasures that lie in layers under our very feet. The random height also activates them and seems to make them more dimensional.

Sewing techniques

Here's a few more drawings that feature the hand sewing...pretty fun!

See-through drawings

Some of the latest drawings I'm doing incorporate architectural drafting film, which one of the graduating grad students gave me when she was cleaning out her studio. It's been really fun to work with, as it allows me to mask some of the areas a bit, as well as pierce the surface of the paper to make some things move from the front to the back. Two-sided drawings are next, I think.

Getting somewhere

All the experimentation is starting to pay off; I have a lot more freedom in my process now, and I'm actually chomping at the bit every day to get into the studio to see where it will go next. I've started incorporating some hand sewing techniques, which has been really fun. I just got a sewing machine, so who knows what will happen next!

Public Art project

My spring quarter is finally done, and I'm getting the blog up to date. I was in a class this quarter that was actually a public art competition (there's a past posting about it). The jury was June 5th, and while I didn't win, it was a really great experience. I worked with a 3-D modeler who made a virtual model of my pieces. These are a few of the images he made. I took these images and made them into two 36 x 48" presentation posters. I also made a small model. They are in an exhibition on campus right now, so hopefully I'll take a picture of them on view to post.