2013
Video still from work in progress
2012-2013 is an year of experimentation for me. I'm devoting my time to an increased studio practice and allowing more space for failure and exploration.
This video work, with a sound-track composed by Marc McNulty, was inspired by a text by Le Corbusier.
2011
Multiple poster on newsprint
This newsprint poster maps the successive pyroclastic (ash) flows of Mount Vesuvius-Somma, the same volcano that buried Pompeii and neighboring towns in 79 CE. Each flow, dating back to roughly 18000 BCE, is mapped with a single color matched to a gelato flavor (strawberry, pistachio and so on). To me, a logical response to heat is the consumption of a refreshing ice-cream cone and no-one does ice-cream flavors better than the Italians. Drawing a link between a possibly imminent eruption of what is considered the deadliest volcano on Earth and a puddle of melting gelati is my way of representing the way Neapolitans make light of this natural threat. Che sarà sarà.
2010
Book, Basswood desk, wall appendices
An obsessive analysis of one of Edgar Allan Poe's last tales touches on the philosophy of landscape design, nineteenth century painting, Poe's life and loves, in 103 footnotes, only to come to an unexpected conclusion.
The installation consists of a hand-made artist's book, a desk and stool, wall charts and photographs.
2010
website
An interactive version of the text and footnotes from the artist's book Landor's Cottage Footnoted.
The web is a way of widely distributing content usually only available through an prolonged interaction with the book in its installation setting.
Some multimedia content is added.
2011
Cyanotypes, display case, vinyl letters
Originally an anatomical expression, 'Distal Zone' is given geographical and emotional meaning in this instance. In my mind, it is a space with indistinct contours and shifting landmarks, as expected of a place that exists in memory.
The blue tone of the images is a result of the chosen process, cyanotype printing, yet my choice of medium originates in the science of light and color and in the small blue landscapes lost at the back of Renaissance portraits, hazy worlds we at once remember but never recognize.
Combining satellite imagery and 3D rendering technology with 19th century photographic processes, Distal Zone evokes the documentary approaches of photographers Disdéri, Marville and Atget, to catalogue the growth of a virtual Paris.
A measure of the physical distance is marked on the cards in the form of stamps and post-office barcodes, grime and dents.
2010
masonite, fir, paint, sound
8 x 8 x 8 feet
A stage, a book, or a cave. The story of Echo, as told by Echo (is it an interior monologue?), or by someone who has taken pity on Echo's inability to express herself and does the talking for her - at the nymph's expense. A text about frustration, unrequited love, original creative acts and mimicry.
The structure invites the viewer-reader to walk through the book and become a part of the text, by contributing sound to a live feed and their shadow and shape to the composition.
2010
Digital HD Video. 10 minutes
Commissioned to accompany a composition by John Holland
2009
Sound structure: cardboard, pink convoluted foam, cellphone speakers, antenna, transmitter, receiver, computer fan.
This structure was based on the Buckminster Fuller geodesic dome and was built entirely of found cardboard. The inside of the dome was coated in pink foam to sound-proof the structure both from the inside and the outside. We built it in response to the difficulty of finding a private room in a public space. The antenna on the roof picked up a transmission from Marc's studio via our own pirate radio station and the speakers on the outside of the dome diffused pink noise into the gallery to create sound camouflage.
Marc McNulty, sound artist and composer www.earphone.org
2011
Site-specific sound installation
Multi-channel sound and computer-controlled lights; wood, fabric
Composed and recorded by Marc McNulty
We created a sonic and sculptural environment conveying sensations of instability and precariousness usually felt on a larger scale. With increasingly numerous and alarming accounts of disastrous floods, storms and quakes, we felt compelled to transform a place we would see as shelter into a space that evokes anything but safety. We are attempting to bring some tangibility to an experience that for many of us remains abstract, though perhaps increasingly less so.
The interior of the studio was been modified to exaggerate its existing floor-plan, with its angled wall, low ceiling and New England aesthetic. Light dynamically alters the space in counterpoint to sound from opposing ends of the audible spectrum, creating an experience that is responded to viscerally rather than interpretively.
2009
series of 8 etchings
The floorplans belong to a private villas in the towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum, buried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD. The society that lived there was one of leisure and extravagance, and the homes were lavishly planned and decorated. In spite of the threat posed by the proximity of the volcano, these coastal towns thrived because of the rich soil, the proximity to Rome and the unparalleled view of the Bay of Naples.
The only written eye-witness account of the eruption that buried these towns comes from a young student in the natural sciences, Pliny the Younger. His two letters to the Roman historian Tacitus have become not only historical accounts of great importance, but also wonderful examples of early science writing. They demonstrate the importance of precise language and careful observation. The sentences below the floorplans were chosen from his letters.
2009. Site-specific installation, in collaboration with Brant
white gaffer's tape
This site-specific installation was done at the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts in Deer Isle, Maine. The architect of the site, Edward Larabee Barnes, based the footprint of the artists' cabins on that of Henry David Thoreau's at Walden Pond. Referring to the text for the measurements of that long destroyed cabin, we mapped out its volume in white tape within our own.
We were curious to see how the two spaces interacted and how Barnes had taken the dimensions of the Walden space into consideration.
I am particularly fascinated with Thoreau's legacy and with how his gesture to remove himself to the woods and simplify his life has entered the cultural consciousness and influences the way we approach living in nature. Thoreau didn't set out to write at Walden, and drafted his reflections on the experience 10 years after being there. The furniture we left in the cabin corresponds to the items he had and there was notably no table.
2009
24 second HD video loop. Silent.
During this quick loop, two French words ALORS/DEHORS briefly appear.
These can be translated as SO/GET OUT SO?/LEAVE THEN/OUTSIDE or any combination of those same words.
The gesture suggests the words as much as the words might define the gesture, simultaneously inviting a viewer into the scene and rejecting her/him from it.
The gestures are choreographed to music that cannot be heard and the spectator is left to imagine what it could be.
I was thinking about how music can color experience and how the music-player creates inherently private experiences.
The lighting and the use of text are nods to French new wave film-maker Jean-Luc Godard, in particular his film A Woman is a Woman, which explores tensions and power struggles in a romantic relationship.
I'm very pleased to announce that I will be an artist in residence at the Wassaic Project in June 2013
Elsewhere, curated by Liz Devlin
The Distillery Gallery, Boston
September 20 - October 26, 2012
Opening reception: Thursday 20 September, 7 - 9pm
Acquisition of artist's book Landor's Cottage, Footnoted, 2010, 5/10, for the Library's Special Collections
Fountain, Brooklyn, NY
4 February - 3 March, 2012
Nov/Dec 2011: Exposure
3/3 Gallery, Rome, Italy
October-November 2011
Kingston Gallery
450 Harrison Avenue, Boston, MA
30 August - 30 September, 2011
Jane Deering Gallery, Gloucester, MA
July-September 2011
Solo Show with Marc McNulty
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Samsøn Projects
450 Harrison Avenue, Boston, MA
July 2011
Le Garage at the Rencontres d'Arles
9 rue Raillon, Arles, France
4 - 10 July 2011
Kingston Gallery, Boston
May 2011
Solo Show
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University Galleries, UMass Lowell
April 2011
Kingston Gallery, Boston
January 2011
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