Four: Reflecting on the January 2017 Residency

The Image as an Object

Andy Warhol, Chain Link Fence, c. 1980

Gelatin Silver Prints, stitched

Several things about this work really resonated with me:

1. The physicality of the stitches; sewing the photos together merges image and object
2. The act of sewing and connections it could draw between me and my mother
3. The practice of quilting and connections it could draw between me and my grandmother
4. The potential for pattern-making and abstraction

From the moment I saw this work I wanted to experiment with sewing photographs. In August, I posted about the narrative qualities of detail shots. I think abstracting these detail photographs by cutting them apart, reassembling them and sewing them back together is an interesting way to expand this line of thinking.

I will look to several artists to inform this particular series of work:

1. El Anatsui
2. Gee's Bend Quilters
3. Faith Ringgold
4. Romare Bearden
5. Aaron Siskind

There are 3 short-term goals for this work:

1. Abstracting individual images
2. Combining individual images with archival images from the same location
3. Combining multiple images from the same location

I'm super excited to begin this series. I've been working on editing the photos to print this week. In the meantime, my new sewing machine just arrived so while I wait for the prints, I will experiment with sewing paper using whatever I find lying around the studio.

The Object as an Image

Over the summer, I made some cyanotypes while visiting my grandmother. She owns kitchen utensils that were passed down to her by her own mother. A couple may have even belonged to her grandmother as well. These objects are beautiful in their own right.

Although they are still being used, they hold for me memories of my great-grandmother and her cooking. They also bring to mind issues of legacy and inheritance. Not only do these objects symbolize the values of hard work and devotion to family that was the legacy my great-grandmother passed on to my grandmother and the rest of her descendants, but they are also imbued with memories of her recipes, mealtimes and holidays spent with family, and a tangible symbol of her touch and labor.

My goal is to incorporate several of these images into my quilted collage work. I will also experiment with using them as part of a wall collage, that will draw connections between my hand photographs and hand shell sculptures.

Reflections - Sculpture & Installation

Hannah Wilke, Fork and Spoon, 1974, kneaded erasers and metal utensils
Image source

The following reflections originated with my Residency Summary from July. In italics, I have included my thoughts about how the ideas have developed over the last couple of months and how I plan to proceed now that I'm back in the studio.

Shells
- Really consider how the shell work functions beyond the memorialization of a gesture. In thinking about how I can incorporate some of the photographs I used over the summer and cross reference work across different media. I will translate my mother and grandmother's gesture photographs into shell forms.

- Revisit Hannah Wilke. I'm very interested in her gestural forms, especially when she combines abstracted gestures with representational imagery/objects. The interior space in my shells also resemble yonic forms, as well as mouth and ear cavities, creating possibilities to reference narration (what is heard and spoken)

- Consider other material for this work (etc. silicon, resin, clay) In response to my desire to create work that encourages and rewards interaction, I want to use a material that is pleasing to touch, while maintaining the sense of immediacy and level of detail that plaster lends to the work.

- Should these be multiples? Or unique? I think with the way that the idea is developing definitely unique is the way to go. I am capturing specific moments and referencing different people.

- Think about how to arrange or display work to encourage viewer interaction. Packaging? This is still under consideration.

Papier-mache
Ontologically, sculpture on the floor is confrontational to the viewer. The forms that I use are also much more aggressive (almost grotesque) than the narration that accompanies them.
Find a way to resolve this disconnect through ontological shift, use platform and/or Plexi cover, or make experience more immersive. Intentional or not, this work has Pop/Surrealist references. Consider a shift in scale.
The tactile relationship that the viewer has with the work is very important to me, which leads me to believe that limiting the work to a handheld scale should be my goal. These objects can then be displayed as collections on a shelf or in a vitrine.

Work on consolidating tone with other works
Certain motifs are more eloquent in the pictorial than in objects. In this work the motifs are too obscure, becoming illustrative of ideas rather than interactive.
How can I increase the complexity of this work? I believe the scale shift and clarifying my conceptual intentions will help answer these questions. This work displayed in context with the other work (quilts, images, audio, and reliefs, etc.) will also help build a narrative. The tone in this work should help lend meaning to the other objects rather than detract from it. I will also reintroduce papier-mache reliefs to my practice, but rather than depicting archetypes of land forms as they did before, they will map specific places and memories. This will help bridge the gap between object and pictorial.

Are these works necessary? I can't really determine this right now. I need to continue making them following the guidelines I set above and see where that takes me. Keep making and experimenting, maybe they will be absorbed into the other work. Maybe not.

If so, how can I improve their construction? Work on armatures, surface, and color.

Make sure that materiality and form connect. Why am I using paper to create this work? Is there a way to use paper in a more intentional way with this work? These questions need to be clarified for me personally and it the work itself.

Objects, Labor, & Identity: Mom and her Cross-stitching

I see this photo series as a continuation of the object series I started last semester where I cast the negative space created by specific gestures to create organic, shell-like objects. My mom has always been creative. When I was young, she ran a home-based sewing business. Some of my earliest memories are of watching her work or going fabric shopping with her. Although she has taken up cross-stitching recently, observing her creative process feels like a memory that has come full circle. This series also picks up the branching line visual motif that I started using last semester.

Where have all the lightning bugs gone?

 I've been journaling memories this semester and it is proving to be a valuable way to generate ideas for work. One thing that stood out to me was a memory of chasing and catching lightning bugs in my grandmother's backyard. I remembered there being so many. They seemed to hang like storm cloud among the low hanging branches of  trees, flashing as unpredictably as the bolts they are named after. Watching them swarm in my childhood was a near nightly occurrence at dusk during the summer and fall months. These days, I might see one or two of these flying beetles occasionally throughout the season, but can't remember the last time I saw a swarm of them. 

My musings led me to research what if their populations are dwindling. I found that they are, on a global scale and not just locally. As is the case with bees, scientists aren't exactly sure what is causing their disappearance, however there is one theory that increased light pollution disrupts their mating patterns. This revelation has let to several projects I'm currently working on. They deal with a fossilization of memories and personal/family narratives dealing with fireflies through objects. The first one is a plaster cast of the negative space between my hands, depicting the gesture of capturing a lightning bug. This is a sketch and not the final piece. I'm still working out the final form and the best way to construct it.