New York, 2020
Untitled 1, Shadowland
Untitled 2, Shadowland
Shadowland is defined as a place in shadow, an indeterminate borderland between places or states. A region of uncertainties, unrealities, the domain of the unconscious. A place where normal rules and boundaries do not apply. It is the shadow self, during this unprecedented moment in history, that I think many of us face in our isolation.
My studio practice is out in the field. A commune with nature, it brings me to a place of reverence and peace. With the advent of shelter-in-place, I now have an empty room, a roll of insect screen, plants and a desk. In making these new works I have incorporated elements of this interior, such as tracings of the shifting afternoon sun onto the walls and floorboards with elements of the landscape remembered. I am blending the experience of both environs, both my memory of historical experience and my immediate experience of the current space.
Experiential in nature, the moray created by the layers of mesh, shifts with the viewer and in this sense the works are alive. I think that on one level they speak, quite literally, to the fabric of our being and the fragility of our existence. There is a delicate balance in these pieces, the fabric cannot be layered so much and in the necessity for economy they become quite meditative in nature. I’m thinking about the interrelationship of all things and of the unexpected. I’m thinking about movement, of the light, shadows, our dark side, the ranges of emotions we go through each day in this restricted existence; there is a lot of repeat in our days, and as a result a clarification occurs.
It is an active way of working, it requires a softness, a vulnerability and requires ‘tending,’ much as we need to care for ourselves in this social crisis.
