The use of line creates an aura of enclosure through toughness in repetition. The repeating lines seen are fences/window bars are evoked in the use of line. The associated idea of enclosure isn’t far fetched when using lines. The work similarly creates what could be abstracted slats in a quantum world.
The foreground and background are colored stripes that create a rhythm similar to the monotony experienced over the last year. The repeating lines work as an element of sameness that unifies the black and white stand-ins for daytime and nighttime. Throughout the series the set colors shift from composition to composition but the palette is intentionally limited colors as another way to emphasize the similarities day in and day out.
The concept of earning stripes, proving that on the Künstlerroman progress is being made. The stripe when found in the natural environment specifically on animals works as camouflage. A repeating pattern breaks up the silhouette of the wearer/animal. This creates the appearance that many have become a single unit when in a group. In the case of the individual the stripe creates a blending effect for example with a tiger in tall grass.
Line work creates stability... hearkening(?) a sense of order and discipline through rigid angles. Order and discipline was established through perpendicular lines and strong relationships during the Egyptian dynasties. I have taken the idea of order and discipline and amplified it through repetition, angle and color. Creating an oppressive energy that places weight on to the solid colored objects. What has its origin in stability has became threatening with visual energy. Similarly the venomous amphibians of the amazon display colored patterns that warn with visual cues.
Colored Stripes are evocative of the lines on writing paper, implying there is a story waiting to be written in the background of these compositions. A series of repeating lines represents so many things in these photographs. A blank sheet of writing paper scored with vast stretches of imaginative possibilities. The heavy energy of repetition creating a palimpsest of what indistinguishable daily life became. Outside the safety of the rooms of our apartment the world became a threatening series of surfaces, all of them glowing to me like the memory of the first stove's touch. The lines came to represent the bars that we imprisoned ourselves with over the course of the making of the series.
The lines also represent a stage of development… i.e. writing, early education, learning to create written language in schooling. The lines are an early memory of learning. During the first year of studies in America, referred to as Kindergarten from the German Kinder which translates to child and garten which translates to garden, implying this is where childhood is nurtured through interaction and education, the standard of working within the lines is introduced. This is where I learned that shape can have corresponding sound. Taking this idea to the visual arts I’m exploring where basic shape can have corresponding emotional resonance.
When learning the principles of design as a student the exercises are almost uniformly taught in absence of the element of color. Allowing the focus to rest on the line, repetition, etc.
