Shift is a two-woman installation show at the Fort Collins Lincoln Center, featuring Amy Reckley and yours truly. The premise of the show is that the installations change over the course of the three-week exhibit. The way we’re working is very much site-specific: Amy and I are both responding to the context of immanent demolition and renovation of the space. The Lincoln center is about to be closed for a major remodel and the concept and timing of this show acknowledges the coming change. Although we each bring our own personal and idiosyncratic concepts to our work, we’re both referencing the processes of destruction and rebuilding- and exploiting the now-obsolete condition of the gallery space.
Amy stripping the carpet.
This is to be the last art show before the current gallery space is obliterated. The space we’re working in is effectively disposable, opening up an unusual opportunity to radically alter our exhibit space… which we both jumped at, stripping the beige-carpeted walls and purple-carpeted floor.
Because the exhibit will evolve, I’m documenting our progress, photographing the work every couple of days. The first two days of the exhibit were committed mainly to preparing the space. Amy is constructing her piece partly out of the materials found on-site: the carpet, the acoustical ceiling tiles, the wall in its raw state.
Saturday 5-15: Amy's space.
I needed something closer to a blank canvas- a more or less neutral backdrop for my frail wire constructions. So, after stripping the carpet, I painted the ceiling and floor a soft cream color. (I’m very indebted to gallery crew members Aki and Nancy for their assistance at this stage.) I put just one coat on the wall because I liked the rough texture and the many many nail holes, reflecting a history of use. Those were a welcome surprise- they remind me of constellations: I’m happily integrating them into the piece. By mid-week, the installations were beginning to take shape. Amy popped out ceiling tiles, placed the first of two “cyclone” forms- huge circular gestures fashioned from birch
Saturday 5-15: Sarah's space.
strips- in her space and began to rearrange the salvaged carpet into organic, sometimes anthropomorphic shapes. I installed nine closed, roughly spherical wire clusters in my own space, carefully choosing the spacing between them. Going forward I’m opening these forms up, expanding and linking them together into an overall structure, as determined by the parameters of the space.
The show runs through May 28, and it’s a little bit different every day. Follow our progress in detail at Vaeth Art Blog, or better yet- stop by:
* Mondays – Fridays, 8am – 6pm
* Saturdays, noon – 6pm
* Evenings of performances
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