REVERSAL

Part 1 of Master's Thesis Project

(Part 2 in Spring 2013)

ARTIST'S STATEMENT:

Physical:

“Reversal” is all about transformation.  It is a process-oriented piece in which a white gallery space is covered in black paper and turned back to its original white state through a set of limitations defined by the roll of the dice.  This process will occur over the course of a five-day school week.  The space is ever-changing and will be transforming constantly.

The resulting effect of the limitations is that destruction will be used as a means of creation—through either the addition of white paint or the removal of black paper.  While there are set limitations defined by chance, the follow-through for these actions is spontaneous, giving the artist the choice of how to respond in the moment of creation.
The set limitations are as follows:

1: Line-exclusive.
2: Anti-silhouette: a solid shape that creates negative space.
3: Pixel: eliminate squares as a form of data/image-removal.
4: Repetition: pattern, texture.
5: Rip: something completely uncontrollable.
6: Wildcard: spontaneous reaction, or the choice to continue a previously started action.

Personal:

This piece is the means for a shift in my artistic perspective.  I wanted to challenge my creative world, rather than focusing on the gallery as a place to hang work I wanted the gallery to become the work. 

All in all, this piece is a large-scale experiment.  Paper has been the creative catalyst that transformed my work from the world of two- to three-dimensions—from illustration to pop-ups to paper cutouts/shadow work to puppets.  I am grateful for this transition but sometimes in moving forward you also leave things behind.  Lately, I have been greatly missing my roots in drawing.

This installation, in its essence, seeks to explore my past on paper in my current three-dimensional world, to see how they can interact and inform each other as I move forward as an artist.  As much as this piece is about physically changing the gallery space it is also about the personal transformation of my creative perspective.  While “Reversal” implies opposition, for me the reversals are collaborating to become the new catalyst for moving forward.