Monday, October 13, 2008

some background

initially, i was approached and offered the opportunity to exhibit based on some previous work (i will post images if it is of interest to my readers). knowing the space, i was determined to do something new with my work and to try to take advantage of the lo-fi/ industrial mood of the space. also, i knew i had a lot of freedom and could use the space (and fill it or not) however i wished.

i had wanted to turn some books into lightboxes for quite some time (i have 4 or 5 boxes of condensed Reader's Digests, thanks to the local Catholic Church), but had no idea how to go about constructing them. that was the primary challenge since i was absolutely ignorant about the electrical logistics of the planned (hoped for?) piece, and the metaphors of books and light were core to the work. without the lightbox/books, i would have made an entirely different exhibition (though not really - it would still involve the idea of books and explore many of the same ideas). and now i can explore those ideas for other spaces.

in my sketchbooks i collect random [para]phrases and quotes, and recipes for kneeling was one that had been resonating for some time. that phrase became the generating impulse for the exhibition. i knew that i would use books, and i knew that i wanted to use light (and therefore darkness). i knew that i wanted to incorporate an interactive and physical (ritual?) element. the main issue was: how do i build them? the second issue was: what kinds of images do i want to employ (if any)? of course, there were other questions: what media? do i use collage? drawing? painting? should i use text? what size? how many? what arrangement?

to be honest, i tried revisiting previous abandoned images and pieces, but nothing seemed to really suit the piece. while i do tend to work more conceptually (.e. i have an idea and i work towards that idea, considering how the materials 'work' or 'speak', as well as what kinds of images or texts that i want to use) there is also an intuitive component to developing the work and the images/ texts, and the connections between those elements. the first image that seemed to work for the piece was a combination of the following 2 images (which did get used for the piece, albeit in slightly altered form):



these images started generating other related images, and that started the process. in addition, i researched the meaning and history of these two words, and solicited responses from friends, acquaintances and strangers through various forums i haunt. they ended up providing me with an interesting list of options and responses, both specific and general, which also generated images.

installation images

here are some images of the installation and space: