| Stitching
the Invisible Whole |
Mixed-Media Installations
2005 Art Guild Award Exhibition selected by Catharine Clark
June 2005
Sanchez Art Center, Pacifica, CA |
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In Stitching the Invisible Whole I have imagined the world as image
and form made tangible through an intricate tapestry, in this case
embroidery thread on photographs. I question the very nature of form
by bleeding the colors out, alchemically cooking the images down to
their color essence and then further down to undyed thread, bringing
focus to the raw material from which all things are made.
I began working on Stitching the Invisible Whole after returning from
Thailand in January, 2005. I was trekking in the northern part of
the country when the tsunami struck, killing over 250,000 people across
eight countries. Being in Thailand and having survived the tsunami
had a huge impact on my life and art. Once again in my life I was
faced with a near-death experience further revealing the lesson of
impermanence, so intrinsic to the nature of our existence.
I had not been that close to death or natural disaster except my own
battle with cancer or that of my brother before his death. I had never
seen so many people come to rescue and care for those who were suffering.
While still in Thailand I watched the western news coverage and was
struck by the selective eye of the mainstream media and their proclivity
towards spectacle. I was jolted by seeing things that took thousands
of years to create, suddenly stripped down to a thread-bare state
of ruin. This was a vision literally coming apart at the seams. And
that is when my vision shifted; the event forced me to look at things
more closely, not only to see an apocalyptic wreckage but to see the
materials or actual threads things were made of. Rather than show
the gruesome face of the disaster (as seen in the media) I have chosen
to manipulate my photographs of the trip to explore the fragility
and complexity of our existence. I was drawn to use thread as the
central metaphor in stitching together and tearing apart that which
is not seen, the invisible part of what we are made of, the thread
that binds all things together.
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