with CHEYENNE MALLO and STEPH BELL

December 2011

360˚ installation with screenprint, pronto-plate litho, trace-monotype, and encaustic on handmade paper; recycled cardboard tubes; wire. Dimensions variable. Photographs taken by Sarah Burt and Bryn Sumner at Women's Studio Workshop Gallery, Rosendale, NY.

[locus] [memory] [coping] is a collaborative installation project rooted in the lives and experiences of three artists. This sculptural work incorporates printmaking, handmade paper, and encaustic. It is simultaneously three pieces and one: independent groups of personal imagery which diverge and intertwine. Grouped thematically, they address issues such as romantic relationships, family dynamics, self-image, early memories, and traumatic experiences.

[locus] 

Focusing on a sense of place, I incorporated images relating directly to primary influences in my life. I have chosen to highlight specific events by altering and replicating personal photographs, combining these with hand-drawn imagery and topographic map references to demonstrate their interconnectedness.

—Cheyenne

[memory]

The same words always rise to the surface—that critical moment of communication with its specific inflection, with the feeling it still raises in my throat. I feel a certain ownership of these phrases, spoken to me or by me in the past, even the ones that may seem trivial or generic to others. In retelling the stories behind the words, I at first believed that I was constructing a series of windows into the past. What resulted was, rather, a snapshot of the present. It is an exploration of how I remember these points of strong emotion and how I now make sense of them. I heard on a radio show once that each time you recall an event, the memory is changed, the more fabricated it becomes. Perhaps those moments—those few words that seem so solid—aren't even real anymore.

—Bryn

[coping]

My images are the duality of a constant struggle for change and what is; one strives while the other remains resilient, neither a victor, both shifting indefinitely. This theme is reflected in my own process as I shift from painting to silkscreen, with both mediums relying heavily on drawing. The need to see my own hand throughout the process is paramount, the end result an afterthought.

—Steph