6. Symphony of Fragments no.1
-Photographs, thread, color pencil, acrylic paint, gouache, ink, frames, dirt, broken glass, and moon cacti installation.
This past weekend I was part of a pop-up group show called “People are Strange” at the DA center for the arts in Downtown Pomona. My friends Pamela and Alberto put on this show which included a group art show, live bands, and a theatre play! I had lots of fun, and it was a good turn out with lots of love and laughter.
Pamela asked me if I was interested to show some work about a month prior so that gave me enough time to work on a new piece. I decided I wanted to show some of my photographs since I haven’t had the opportunity to physically print some and display them. I decided I would include some mixed media elements to make it more interesting and fun than just a photo in a frame. (not that there is anything wrong or boring about that)
This past weekend I was part of a pop-up group show called “People are Strange” at the DA center for the arts in Downtown Pomona. My friends Pamela and Alberto put on this show which included a group art show, live bands, and a theatre play! I had lots of fun, and it was a good turn out with lots of love and laughter.
Pamela asked me if I was interested to show some work about a month prior so that gave me enough time to work on a new piece. I decided I wanted to show some of my photographs since I haven’t had the opportunity to physically print some and display them. I decided I would include some mixed media elements to make it more interesting and fun than just a photo in a frame. (not that there is anything wrong or boring about that)
In 2010 for my senior solo show, I installed 120+ framed drawings along with a textile installation of cocoons. I showed those same framed drawings but much less in a two person show a few months after that and since then, they have sat in milk crates in a dusty upstairs room. I thought I would reuse these frames for this current installation.
I acknowledge that the way I arranged the frames is in direct correlation with how artist like Barry McGee, Ed Templeton, Margaret Kilgallen, and many more have shown their framed work. This is completely intentional, a nod to those artist, and happily done. For this piece I thought this arrangement would be the best way to show it.
For the past few years I have been shooting with film to help me slow down and really pay attention to moments. There were times where I wouldn’t let myself bring along my camera because I started to think it was a distraction from the moments I would try to capture. Eventually it became an aide or a reminder to enjoy the present. Only a few of the twenty two photos are shot with my digital camera.
These photos were selected with the idea of relationships. My personal relationships with the people and moments in the photographs and their relationship with the other people or moments. This cluster of pictures are what make up my life, in a simple twenty two photographs, they capture moments of joy and the people I share that with, not all, but just a fragment.
The drawing on the very top of the gallery was placed there for the play factor, taking advantage of these really tall gallery ceilings and making my installation bigger than it is. The hands in the drawing are my own and a representation of self, of the constant shifting that happens in our lives and the release or relationship that has with ourselves. The relationship or connector is the red thread that flows down into the photos. From there it travels as a thinner thread that covers the entire cluster until it ends up in another drawing as a knotted ball in between two hands.
From there it drops down into a frame with patterned fabric under broken glass. Sitting on top, two moon cactus looking like they are growing out of the broken frame. This is where these emotions, trials, hardships, joy, conversations and everything else that makes us up arrives at. It arrives at this broken glass frame with a complex but simple pattern and out comes growth.
One thing I’m always reminded of is, feelings are just passengers, sadness and happiness come and go, and even when the passenger is anger, depression, frustration, or hopelessness and we think to ourselves, there is no coming back from this, there is always a way to come back, to become stronger, more self aware, there is always growth.
A big thank you to Cat, Cheyne, and Xavier for helping me with the installation, I’m usually so stubborn with my installs that I forget that help is nothing but a good thing. Thank you to Pamela and Alberto for asking me to show work. And thank you to all the people that let me take their photo and let me be a part of their lives.
Happy New Year friends.
No comments:
Post a Comment