In this body of work, I have been looking at different ideas about time and art history. I was questioning the notion of linear time and its insistence on the distinction of past present and future.
Through the making of this body of work I was asking: if time were to be reconsidered as multidirectional and not as a linear trajectory, how would this impact ideas around progress and completion?
I started to see the paintings not as a static force in a linear trajectory, but more like what George Kubler in his essay ‘The Shape of Time‘ (1962), calls ‘multidirectional transmissions of energy’. Where the work of art is a message whose sender and destination are constantly shifting. Seen from this perspective, my question, “where do they begin and where do they end” became difficult to answer.
I began to view the materials, ideas, and processes as being bought together in an assemblage of different temporal dimensions that are constantly shifting in meaning and intent.
For example, some of the paintings were started several years ago and were repurposed as the new support for the paintings. Some of the supports included found fabrics and clothes that have their own prior histories. Also, the ideas informing the paintings point backward in time to earlier Monochrome, Minimalist, and Arte Povera movements, and ask what relevance could they have today?
Lastly, the process of using multi-layers of paint that dry over long durations and collect dust, damage, and debris along the way, all invite the reconsidering of the temporal structure of creative production.
By posing the simple question where does something begin and where does it end, allows for the process of making to no longer be sole in service of a finite purpose.
This was the artist statement for my show at Stacks Projects in Kings Cross in 2019.
See more of the work from my show ‘Mostly Monochrome’.
