I used to make because it was rewarding. I trusted my hands and the pressure of the outcome was usually off. Now I make because I have to and because it is my way of creating a space for my life to exist within the world. Making is a way to understand things that have yet to reveal themselves to me on their own.
I find comfort in dissecting and reorganizing information and parts.
I find comfort in balance and control.
I trust my eyes, though no longer my hands or mouth.
I am preoccupied with this.
I make fabric because I find value in building environment and interior space. I began considering motion and ultimately translation. I am curious as to what parts of the whole are essential to its character; what parts of the whole can be lost until identity falters? As my own most willing subject, I looked upon my daily life to collect and attempt collate my activities - each motion of my day into the bare minimums of flat line and shape.
Irene Emery noted the “bewildering inconsistencies and incongruities” of a related undertaking. I quickly found solace in our parallel reactions to incongruities: undertaking a detailed and systematic investigation of essential characteristics with standardized materials and vocabulary. I printed flat lines and shapes in patterns that were fitting to the base motion. Gleaned through circling back again and again, I made sure the resemblance was not lost to me. Structure can never be absent, though “diversity sought” and “the range of diversity explored.”
I have washed and worn down my prints as a visual cue of endless repetition and routine. Mistakes and misprints reveal the miniscule ways in which I break from repetition, which I tend to overlook. No four yards are perfect; such is the character of a collection. Through this set I offer, as Muybridge did, “richness and complexity without comprehension or closure.” I consider this to be the reason for studio work at large.
Nearly everything is only the beginning.
I know that onlookers might very well not recognize these motions. To hope for mass clarity, though, is to ignore the unavoidable multiplicity of representations. I welcome this openness and risk the same way I welcomed restricting my plan of future use for this collection. I have never printed such a volume of fabric, though I wanted to train myself and therefore chose this experimental mode of investigation. I plan to grow ever more comfortable with semi-perfection, and contribute to the clarity and accuracy of the communication of information as I continue to work.