at Meridian Gallery, 2012
as part of DARK NIGHTS, BRIGHT LIGHTS: ARTISTS RESPOND TO RITUALS & TRADITIONS IN THE HOMEPLACE & BEYOND
When I was first approached to think about showing work as part of this group exploring issues of the everyday intimate, of the spiritual, of the home, I thought back of course to some of my past work that would fit the bill nicely. “Recoverings,” shown at the Magnes Museum in 2007 took stained table linens and presented them as abstracted paintings where the stains themselves became the intimate indexical mark showing use, disuse and the special world that happens when meals are shared. Another possible direction was to use embroidery hoops, which have been central to much of my past work. In these, I've mused on imagery both recognizable and abstract and told stories both real and imagined through thread and even glitter, beads and panty hose.
But here, at Meridian Art Center, in this special space already full of ghosts and memories, I've decided to to in a different direction. I've moved away from the physical (three-dimensional painting and sculpture) and into the realm of the spiritual (two-dimensional photographic processes). A project I have been working on for several years kept appearing before me as if begging to be brought to light.
In this work, called “near and far,” I've collaborating with my own little household god, Jude, who sees the world from another vantage point, one that is two feet above ground level. This perspective allows the images taken to be at angles not normally seen and of imagery not normally of interest. These images range from the banal, with the mother, or at least part of her features largely, to abstracted images where confused camera settings make for quite beautiful and magical images. At times the images are so strange it is almost as if there is another presence at work.
These images are difficult to decipher, the viewer is unsure of where their position is in the work both in terms of content and spatially. And I believe they speak to the other work in the exhibition in interesting and challenging ways. I look forward to seeing the outcomes and relationships that these works produce with each other and with the space itself.