One to Many
One to Many
Senior Art Exhibition
Janotta Gallery
Smith College
April 28 – May 5, 2017
Works shown:
Shadow Drawings I (2017)
Shadow Drawings II (2017)
Re: (2017)
Artist Statement:
My work is a record of experimentation with mark-making and paper. The process, both in drawing and sculpture, is extremely gestural. I am interested in making art that acts as evidence of movement and also invites movement in the viewer. I want my works to provide an intricate landscape in which the viewer can find countless niches and moments that incite curiosity, encouraging a closer look.
Paper is a vessel that can carry various kinds of marks—residue from an assortment of actions carried out on the medium. I believe paper’s pliable and fleeting nature is optimal for recording gestural movements, while its surprisingly tough qualities give it a degree of substance and stability. Paper is remarkably absorbent—I am enthralled by how strongly the paper holds onto charcoal, making it possible to eternalize something as ephemeral as shadows. Paper remembers my marks, whether they are focused on relaying texture, as in Shadow Drawing I, or space, as in Shadow Drawing II.
On the other hand, a single fold in a piece of paper can leave a mark as distinctively as a piece of charcoal would, while simultaneously transforming it into a sculpture. Re: is an investigation of how drawing and sculpture respond to one another. The large drawing depicts sculpted paper in a flattened form, while concurrently traversing 3D space. The paper sculpture strung above is a gestural “drawing”, and its shadows cast additional marks on the large drawing. In this way, various iterations of paper resonate with one another, leaving behind marks that document their interactions. By drawing sculpture and sculpting drawing, I blur the lines between the two and focus on the common ground, the thrill of observing and interacting with something that is interesting yet not fully comprehensible.
To contextualize my work, I am inspired by the work of Eva Hesse and Judy Pfaff, who work at the intersection of drawing and sculpture, as well as Cy Twombly and Julie Mehretu, who make layered, mark-oriented drawings and paintings. Their work has visual elements that seem rather erratic, cluttered, and volatile, yet make sense as a whole. Like these artists, I am interested in the certainty and resolution that underlies these gestural movements.