Salley Knight
Professor Hannah Barrett
AIB Group 2
January, 2010
Summary – Residency January 2010
The feel of the work:
1. Laurel: try to find ways to transcend the identity of the material
2. Hannah: You are working abstractly, pulling between painting and sculpture. Need to look for ways to get maximal punch for minimal effort.
3. Debb Todd Wheeler: more, make more of the delicious silk with repetition and accumulation.
4. Jan: loved the looseness of the work – what she called “the chaotic dimension”, the fact that pieces were not sewn down “so it can be played with and manipulated.”
5. Anne Baumgartner: she and I discussed how we love the quality she calls “incidental” and I call “not put,” meaning that the work carries the feeling of a leaf landing there – not placed.
Color
1. Konstanze: too decorative, go ugly
2. Laurel: Your color has become much more sophisticated- which is exciting to see. Look at Jessica Stockholder.
3. Hannah: work in unorthodox ways, go too pretty (“cloying”) and then way other way
4. Debb Todd Wheeler: Your work is about the intersection of color, transparency and light. Do much more of it.
Scale
1. Michael Newman : Do animation.
2. Hannah: Scale up= how to show off the work.
3. Laurel : You tend to work small. Find ways to expand – to the wall, etc.
4. Debb Todd Wheeler : Make your work human size or larger.
Technical
1. Michael Newman : Use a light box.
2. Jeff Eberling: Use a tent.
3. Laurel: Use polystyrofoam or chicken wire to put work on wall.
Use salt to show off pieces on the floor.
4. Debb Todd Wheeler : No salt, use the silk shreds as “salt”. Use plexiglass over or as containers – as Do Ho Suh has done.
5. Hannah: Keep it really simple. Use a sketchbook to show how I arrive at a solution ( important). Pay attention to images and emotional aspects as they come to mind.
6. Jan: No plexiglass with silk! Use the silk itself – these boxes – as containers. Silk is strong and soft. Don’t introduce a hard surface.
Connections
1. Konstanze: Roseanne Trockel, Iza Genzken, and Anette Messagere.
All are ardent feminists. Although they do use cloth in their work, I didn’t like the work. Messagere’s was closest, but very dark.
2. Laurel: Jessica Stockholder, P.S. 1 – I love both, both rich.
3. Debb Todd Wheeler: Nava Lubinsky – I don’t care for even though I see the similarity. Lucas Samaras – some of his work is intriguing. Do Ho Suh – very interesting since he is working with silk in ways similar to what I’m doing.
4. Jeff Meeuwsen: showed the work of a Korean artist Bel Lelei (who is not yet on Google) but she burns holes in organza, which I have done in the past and was glad to remember that I liked the effect.
5. Jan Avgikos: Maya Linn and Alan Kaprow (to understand why to leave my work loose).
6. Hannah: Yes to looking at Robert Irwin. Also: the Gail Fitzgerald show at Carroll and Sons Gallery which illuminated how simplicity can be powerful – and that touch and color are enough. (well almost enough – what with the columns she was referencing using the Styrofoam coolers).
7. Anne Baumgartner: Joe Fyfe – a painter who uses dyed cloth in some of his work. I liked his work.
Possible directions:
I care a lot about the feel of the work – the “incidental” nature. I intend to work larger, more expansively, and I will start with using just silk, as Jan suggested. Since I will also be exploring levels, I may need to use plexiglass or wire as support , too. I will be thinking about how to work with the light, transparency and color and to keep trying to understand those aspects in more sophisticated ways. I’ll reference Jessica Stockholder, Robert Irwin, Josef Albers and Joe Fyfe . Mainly I will focus on Maya Linn – her systemic landscapes- and Do Ho Suh- for his use of organza.
