Behind the Work; Forte and Pianissimo
Finished pieces.
In finalizing the last of the work for ‘Material Experiments’ last month, (currently on view at Cahoots) I had one final idea I wanted to dig into before preparing all of the work for install. I hadn’t thought too much about the pieces, just that I wanted to try out two opposing processes in regards to my collage work.
The first was to simply cover a surface with cut paper. No ‘sketches’ beforehand, no planning where pieces would go - just fill up the page. Keep laying down pieces until I can no longer see white. The second piece would be the same size as the first, but the pieces would be carefully chosen. Slowly applied. I wanted to play with balance and movement within the confines of the page size, and the push and pull of planned and unplanned.
And so, Forte and Pianissimo came to be.
The process of gluing and sticking the pieces to Forte was loud and fast (otherwise I would catch myself planning the next piece spacing) and made quite a racket in the studio. Pianissimo was slow, meditative as I sifted through my pile of cut paintings. They were completely different experiences but yet the same.
You can see the work (and more!) at Cahoots until March (end date TBD).
Collages!
If you’re following me on instagram, you are probably aware of the existence of some of these new collaged pieces - but I haven’t really talked about them much other than, “here it is”.
Right now I’m leaning hard into the preservation of certain moments and the destruction of others, and the building/layering/sculpting of something entirely new.
I’m entranced with the physicality of the process, the trial and error, the cutting of the paper, the choosing of pieces and discarding of others, the glue on literally everything, and the final reveal that is nothing like the original pieces and nothing like the plan I had set for it.
It is a truthful embodiment of the merging of planned and unplanned.
That’s partially because that is exactly how they came to be, and partially because I haven’t figured it out yet.
I haven’t listed these for sale just yet.
When I work on something new I like to share it in person first and talk to people who are interested in the work. I’ve been showing these in person during the Rostrum 312 gallery event in Chicago and the Vyshyvanka Day auction last month, but will be preparing them for sale on the purchase section of my site soon. I’m so excited to share these experiments with you.
Make sure you’re on the email list to find out when they go live.