implicit art

final engraving with japanese paper process

Here’s one of the printmaking experiments I’ve been working on over at the David Krut Workshop (fun space; and cool to brag to my overseas friends that it’s who William Kentridge has always worked with for most of his prints). It’s a detail from this image (the Emmarentia Lilies triptych, originally printed on metallic paper), which I’ve then engraved by hand, and Jill (the awesome printer I am working with) went ahead and, after inking it up, added two layers of thin glued paper before pressing it. That process is called Chine-collé, and is what resulted in the varying colors behind the black ink. For more images, see Compressionism on my flickr. There’s also a lithograph / spit bite combo test I’ve been working on ("nude descension") posted to my kagablog page.

Compressionism is a digital performance and analog archive. In the current studies, I compress bodies, spaces and objects by traversing their surfaces with an image scanner, along varying 3-dimensional paths - literally, I glide, run, hover and swoop across windows, trees, or lilies while the scanner head is in motion. The resulting digital images, which are transfigured down to the size of a small piece of paper, are then re-stretched to their original size, sometimes cropped or colorized. The final prints ask us to ‘look again’ at the relations between subjects, objects, actions and perceptions. At present, I’m taking selections from a series of about 25 Compressionist lambda prints, and iteratively producing traditional (old’s cool!) prints in the form of lithographs, engravings, etchings, silk screens, spit bites, aquatints, and possibly more.

      

 
So this last weekend I finally made it out to Chelsea, with a list of shows to see. This being the preferred method as opposed to busking it which usually tends to result in anger and disillusionment. My experience was more satisfying. I’m learning to filter through the rooms and rooms of junk and get to the important work.
Tara Donovan is a Brooklyn based artist who has risen to notoriety surprisingly fast over the last five years. She has built up an impressive resume of awards, exhibition and invitations.
She works mainly in pre-existing materials such as plastic cups, straws, paper plates as well as toothpicks and nails. She arranges these objects into evocative installations, often using the entire space, to communicate landscapes and nature, making use of low-brow manufactured products. Her materials are transcended by the concept and installation. Space and scale are effectively brought into the work and the results are very subtle and beautiful. Eva Hesse is clearly an influence and it is hard to get away from this in her cube pieces, where she has stacked toothpicks into a self-containing pile (not in this show). Though this work is fantastic, I feel the danger lies in its repetition of a single idea, as well as its reliance to some extent on scale and the material being transcended by the subject matter. Another area which has been brought to question, is her use of teams of female assistants, who produce her laborious sculptures for her. On this one I am not sure. We cant do everything ourselves these days and I use assistants myself from time to time, as the project requires it as do many other artists. Some people really take her to task on this. Im not sure where I stand on this but see the show. I think in this case its justified. It doesnt take away from the work.