Opposition and Sister Squares Are Reconciled A Theory of Forms and Ideas

I just finished my application for the NYFA grant in sculpture. I decided to show 4 pieces from A Theory of Forms and Ideas and all 4 pieces from Opposition and Sister Squares are Reconciled because they seem to be the most similar. I ended up making a fourth sculpture in Opposition and Sister Squares are Reconciled to finish the series so that I would have enough for the application. I also ended up re-shooting Opposition and Sister Squares are Reconciled with a new camera (Canon G15) because the last camera got an annoying scratch on the lens and I needed to shoot them from a farther distance to avoid lens distortion; I found that the lens distortion ruined the effect that I was looking for. Somehow I couldn’t get the same differentiation of shadows with Opposition and Sister Squares are Reconciled as I did with A Theory of Forms and Ideas and I’m not sure if that’s because of the camera or because I’m essentially shooting negative space/surfaces instead of positive space/surfaces.

Here’s the statement that I came up with for both series. I had to keep it under 200 words so I cut a bunch of things out. Below that are the 8 slides that I submitted.

My artwork utilizes small-scale models that are simultaneously abstract and reminiscent of 1960s minimalist sculptures. The sculptures inherently create an awareness of scale that shifts the viewer’s relationship away from traditional, monumentalized work and toward a position of enhanced intimacy.

The sculpture series A Theory of Forms and Ideas takes its name from Plato’s concept of idealized form which postulates the existence of a “reality” inhabited by the ideal or archetypal forms of all things and concepts. This series uses fragments of old black and white corporate logos as a basis for creating objects in three dimensions. Each sculpture was first rendered in pencil using traditional three dimensional drawings techniques before being cut out, glued, sanded, primed and painted with flat black spray paint, creating a refined and dullish surface.

Opposition and Sister Squares are Reconciled references Marcel Duchamp and Vitaly Haberstadt’s book of the same name, which explores and explains various effective strategies for the endgame of chess. In my sculpture series, negative space and isometric perspective are used to deceive the eye into seeing positive forms, further enhancing the perception of form as a malleable and therefore untrustworthy way of truly seeing objects.