Instrument
Suspended at equal intervals, these industrial frames have a cryptic purpose. Thread has been densely and chaotically strung within each rectangle, casting a series of shadows on the four walls containing the frames. An image of a similar weblike pattern hangs on opposite walls, like a window into another dimension.
I am interested in webs, nets and networks as systems which capture, trap and collect. Nets facilitate a particular understanding of the world—by casting a net over the globe, we can find an exact location based on lines of latitude and longitude. Another kind of net, the system of satellite communications, allows information to be collected and disseminated across great areas of space and time. And yet, the net is both present and absent, constructed to only capture an intended object and let other things pass through. Simple fishing nets capture aquatic life, wire fencing keeps large organisms separated, plastic nets organize and display citrus fruit. The net is the threshold between presence and absence, the visible and the invisible.
Found industrial frames, thread, chestnuts, beads, driftwood, nails, softground etching on paper.
Dimensions variable.
Washburn Gallery, University of Oregon.
January 2014