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Box Scheme
Actual Size Gallery
curated by Ana Vejzovic Sharp
July 2010
Axis Mundi
MFA Thesis Show/ Cal Arts
2/25/10
D300
Mid-Rez show
Last Supper 10/09
ID 517
Distributed Gallery Telic Arts Exchange
Curated by Sam Durant & Nancy Buchanan
May 2009
Beyond Geometry
Lime Gallery
California Institute of the Arts
January 2009 MFA 1 show
Back in the Discourse
Main Gallery
California Institute of the Arts
February 2009
Selected Works Guest Curator Karen Higa
Bolsky Gallery December 2007
Down the Rabbit Hole:
An Exploration of Fantasy and Form
Curated by the Loyola Marymount Curatorial Group
November 2007
Corpus Callosum
Curated by Dana Duff
October 2007
Marilyn Lowey
5/2010
I accepted the project to illuminate the Pope
hoping there was a good chance that the experience would help produce an interesting
artwork. The day of his appearance was pure spectacle revealing to me
the business of religion, and how
our present technological world threatens and
questions the presence and workings
of the church, and for that matter all religious
institutions.
However, I was not aware that it would be the
springboard for most of my work at
Cal Arts. Nor had I ever thought of the role of
light in a religious, transcendental or
spiritual context. My earlier art projects that
stemmed from the Pope allowed me to
examine the materiality, absence, representation
and spectacle of light.
The projects and research leading up to my thesis
show, Axis Mundi, was a different
process than I had ever experienced. I was
determined to reduce the ideas and
present them in a clear but abstract methodical
manner, with the hopes of critique
ranging from art history, the role of church presently,
and abstraction of an image.
My initial thought for the show was to bathe the
viewer in a holy spiritual light while
being embraced experientially. It was that idea
that spurred me to research a form
of light source and projection screen that could
do just that. I thought the video
footage of the Pope that I taped would envelope
the viewers while being bathed in
the light.
Unfortunately the poor quality contrast was
not going to work. Long story short, the
ceiling panel in the Sistine Chapel of God giving
life to Adam would accomplish my
goals both aesthetically and critically. In addition,
the nature of the hardware
referenced Dan Flavin due to its visual similarity.
Feeling joyous to that solution I
knew immediately the viewer needed to walk
through the fingers, and the apparatus
would be the first visual elements upon entering
the room.
The week of my show was spent meeting with
many instructors and a rigorous
critique class, Recon. They say more is learned
from your failures than your
successes. The show was successful in many ways,
however my peers raised some
interesting issues regarding the work that I had
not thought of.
The work was kitsch; the chosen image can be
seen under a freeway interchange
and on mugs. The title of the show,
Axis Mundi
, is too general and therefore stops
the work from entering a critical space of discourse.
I thought those ideas were interesting. From the
day of conception I struggled with
the title of the show/work. I was tempted to call it
untitled , but the work was too strong for it to remain nameless. I researched for
days until I found in a religious textbook, Axis Mundi
, the center of a persons world, a title that would
have meaning
for all. And that was the issue, it cannot be all for
everyone.
The timed cross fade of two images depicting the
before and after of the renovation
was integrated into the work to discuss where the
real Sistine Chapel is located, and
does it exist any longer?
One of my classmates stated, The idea that this compression to 25 min of ten years is an
absurd gesture.
Is it? It is important to know what has shifted in the Sistine Chapel? For me that was an
immediate segway into the technology conversation and its impact on art history and the
Church. I wanted to use a lighting convention of the tubes to create a shift of color
temperature in the lights. Thus creating a perceptual change in the gallery.
It is interesting to reflect
on the work, the creation of the show and my
time at Cal
Arts. There are so many thoughts and ideas that
I have learned from my show and
still realize as I create new work.
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