All Memories are Traces of Tears Installation Project

For the past 6 months of been part of an art management company that leases out artwork to clients of various kinds. Below is an installation shot of All Memories are Traces of Tears installed in a fancy loft that someone was trying to sell. I had previously only exhibited this piece once at St. Cecilia’s in Brooklyn where I built a pedestal for it and showed it lying flat. I thought that laying it flat on a pedestal made it sculptural and, being that it was shown in an abandoned nunnery, made it seem like a religious object ready for contemplation. I don’t mind it being shown on the wall and even had it hanging in my studio, but without the ability to see it in the right perspective I find that it looses most of it’s excitement. I think that this is the problem with most art objects; once they are pulled out of their intended contexts they lose most of their original meaning, becoming aesthetic shells that serve someone else’s purpose. That being said, I certainly welcome most opportunities to show my work but find that more and more I have no control over any meaning for my work and am instead left with settling for whatever I can get.

Tone Float and Valis Small Scale Sculptures

Here are 2 small scale sculptures that I finished a couple of weeks ago. The top one is a sculptural version of Tone Float and the bottom one is a sculptural version of Valis. Both were made using the negative perspective of the image as a point of reference. I was going to spray paint them all black like Opposition and Sister Squares are Reconciled and A Theory of Forms and Ideas but decided that the negative space and the reflection of light on the surface created a bland difference between plains and also visually distorted the inner corners, making them lighter. This was the same problem that I had with Opposition and Sister Squares are Reconciled but I was originally hoping to end up with distinctly different shading on the sides of the final image like A Theory of Forms and Ideas. The difference is in how light reflects off of the surfaces and I have a feeling that the light becomes trapped in the negative space, creating dark corners while at the same time reflecting off of the plain that makes up the corner, creating a lighter plain that then makes the space around it look even darker. To combat this I decided to paint the surfaces different shades of gray, making what I thought would be the side with the most light the lightest shade and the side most likely to be in the shadow the darkest gray. I experimented with doing this the opposite way but didn’t like the way it looked. Another problem was the sides of the 1/8″ basswood which I decided to paint a similar shade as the gray paper that I use to photograph on, hoping that the sides would somewhat fade into the background. The edges were painted with Golden #6 and the sculptures were painted with #5, #4, #3.5 and #2 and then coated with Golden UVLS Matte spray varnish.

I still need to make The Pleasure of Deceit and The Visible and Invisible into small scale sculptures as well but haven’t had the time.