| One Sentence Description
My work in larger context.
I abstract narratives, what does that
mean?
Why crochet? Why fiberglass?
Large, indoor, wall-based, geometric, minimal abstractions
whose conceptual purpose is to articulate narratives of identity
in the language of crocheted fiberglass and to disintegrate and
redefine expectations of a sculptural object by unraveling preconceptions
of materials, forms, and categories in art.
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My work is strongly footed in Post-Minimalism, Art
Povera and process art. My narrative reductions utilize industrial
fiberglass and repetitive, hand-labored, domestic craft of crochet.
I feel a strong connection to Eva Hesse. To her spirit
of experimentation; the materials she used; the way her objects,
in navigating through truth of material, embody both beauty and
ugliness of the human condition; her compulsive repetitiveness;
and her use of multiples which reside in the design principle of
same but different.
The work engages math, an underlying principle in
all of life, as a structural foundation by utilizing the grid, prime
numbers, Chaos Theory, the Fibonacci sequence, and Pi. All cultures
seem to have their own lace tradition. If identity is a hybrid of
our heritage, then lace is, as tradition of time, labor, and creativity,
one tiny point of intersection that connects us all.
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Currently, I understand this to mean that I restate
or rather translate a specific story from a spoken language to the
material language of crocheted fiberglass. The translation is the
abstraction.
As do all spoken languages, every material language
has its own unique way of articulating nouns, verbs, adjectives,
thoughts and experiences. The language of crocheted fiberglass,
I discovered over a course of several years, is not only found in
the way that the polyester resin application controls, restricts,
and gives freedom to the crocheted fiberglass cloth. Crochet tradition
includes a vocabulary of forms such as doily forms, all-over patterns,
border patters. These are a part of the crocheted fiberglass vocabulary
as are the multi-various stitches catalogued.
My job is to find the fullness of this new language.
Because the greater my material vocabulary is, the more complex
and more specific can be the thoughts and experiences translated.
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Identity and the construction of identity involve
human history, traditions, groups, constructs, patterns, interactions,
influences, biases, memory, and layering and passing of time. Hand-made
lace has been around for centuries. All cultures in past and present
seem to have their own lace tradition. Lace is one tiny point of
intersection within human history that connects us all. The process
of crocheting lace has been passed on from generation to generation.
In this way it speaks to human history; to time passing; to society;
to traditions of living; to traditions of manual work; to traditions
of creativity.
I combine a very old tradition of repetitive manual
labor, of counting time, with the modern industrial materials of
fiberglass and polyester resin. The material that I crochet and
the forms that I find within the crocheted cloth are contemporary
and relevant to us now but stay connected to human history, to the
steps of social evolution, and to the crawl of time through the
use of various traditional crochet patterns and forms.
The historical and conceptual baggage of crochet speaks
directly in parallel analogies to the historical and conceptual
baggage of identity construction.
The established modern sculpture materials of fiberglass
and polyester resin bring a sculptural and contemporary balance
to this handicraft tradition.
The qualities of fiberglass combined with polyester
resin allow me to create large hard forms that hold their shape
and are virtually indestructible. The material allows me to find
limitless new forms. Another aspect of fiberglass language that
directly speaks to identity is the translucency of this indestructible
material. Translucent fiberglass, projecting and diffusing the light
that passes through it speaks directly to identity, personality,
to human character, to the thing that we are on the inside, the
soul? Are we behavior? Isn’t behavior a type of projection,
a type of shadow.
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